April 29, 2006
Plastic (PTFE) Piercings
Jessica Russell of Lewiston, who has 66 body piercings - 31 of them on her back - was competing in the most unusual category at the tattoo show in Bangor (ME). The piercings on her back are not metal, but are made of flexible plastic. BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY LINDA COAN O'KRESIK
"Once I put that in, I decided I didn't want metal anymore," said Russell, who has a total of 66 piercings, 31 of which are done with PTFE hollow tubing. One well-known brand of PTFE is Teflon.
The corset was created by double rows of five piercings on her lower back that are tied together with the red ribbon. A huge black-widow-spider tattoo, with PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene) piercings at each knuckle of its eight legs, sits on the top of Russell's back and is connected to the corset by a silver chain and black suede cord. Each end of the PTFE plastic tubing is secured by a small silver ball.
PTFE is extremely flexible," J.B. (James Bernard, owner of Mystical Emporium in Auburn, who did all of Russell's piercings) said... while bending a piece of PTFE that is pierced though his sternum. "It's used in angioplasty and other surgeries. It basically eliminates rejection problems."
In addition to nonstick cooking pans, PTFE is used in medical applications because human bodies rarely reject it...
"It will take up to a year" for a PTFE piercing to heal...
~With flexible light-weight hollow tubes replacing metal, piercings can extend greater distances around one's body as well as into space. Allowing for miniature structures, architecture?
People can now have a miniature PTFE Statue of Liberty, Sears Tower, Seattle Space-Needle, Cathedral of Notre Dame, etc. attached to their skull or extending from any part of their body that can be pierced?