This is one of the most common questions I get, and honestly I should've written it down years ago: "Hi, I have a scan/surgery next week, can I keep my jewelry in?" I've had a real influx of people asking for retainers lately — not sure if it's just a coincidence or there's suddenly more surgery happening out there, but either way, it's clearly time to actually answer this properly instead of explaining it one person at a time. So let's cover it: what we actually sell, why some doctors still want everything out anyway, and what to do if your piercing is too young to safely go without jewelry.
What we actually sell, and why it matters here
At our studio, we only sell and pierce with implant-grade titanium or solid gold, sourced from brands whose metal has been thoroughly tested for medical use — every brand we use has mill certificates or test reports proving their jewelry is safe to wear during medical procedures and scans.
A word of caution if you're shopping elsewhere: "implant grade" has become a marketing term, and plenty of brands slap it on jewelry that's never actually been tested. The APP (Association of Professional Piercers) made this easy to check — they publish a verified list of brands that have genuinely gone through testing for titanium, steel, gold, and platinum. If a brand isn't on it, you're taking their word for it, not a lab's.
So why do doctors still ask you to remove everything?
Even with good metal, a lot of doctors will still ask for all jewelry out before surgery or a scan — and there's a common misconception worth clearing up here: being implant-grade or medical-grade doesn't make a piece immune to this. That certification is about biocompatibility — whether the metal reacts with your tissue — not about electrical conductivity. Titanium and gold still conduct electricity like any other metal.
For surgery, the specific risk is electrocautery burns. Surgical tools run an electrical current that's supposed to return through a large pad elsewhere on your body, but a piece of metal jewelry can act as an alternative path for that current — and the smaller the contact area, the worse the resulting burn. The actual research on this (an ex-vivo study using real electrosurgery equipment) found the risk is almost entirely about proximity: temperature barely moved once a piercing was more than about 5-10mm from the active cautery tool, but spiked dangerously the instant the tool made direct contact with it. In other words, it's not that your titanium jewelry is dangerous everywhere on your body — it's that a hospital has no practical way to guarantee distance and placement for every patient, so "take it all out" becomes the simplest safe default. Taping jewelry down doesn't help either — it only stops it from getting lost, not from conducting current.
For MRIs and scans, it's a different issue again. Titanium itself is non-magnetic and considered safe in principle, but hospital staff usually have no way to verify your jewelry is genuinely implant-grade rather than jewelry labeled that way without testing — so standard policy is often to remove it regardless. On top of that, even non-magnetic metal near the scan area can distort the image, which is its own separate reason for removal.
This is also where some doctors say they've had bad experiences with surgical steel specifically — and that tracks, since surgical steel is a lower, less consistent grade of metal than properly tested titanium or gold, and isn't something we consider safe for the body in the first place.
The actual problem: fresh and healing piercings
Here's where it gets tricky. If your piercing is younger than about 2 years, there often isn't enough mature scar tissue yet to guarantee the channel stays open if you remove the jewelry — for a shorter or longer stretch depending on the piercing. So how do you follow your doctor's instructions without losing a piercing you're still healing?
What NOT to use: plastic retainers
Over the years, a lot of cheaper brands have sold retainers made from acrylic, PTFE, or "bioflex" plastic. Here's the honest picture: it's not that your body attacks these materials and breaks them down — the bigger issues are that these materials are porous at a microscopic level, which lets bacteria build up inside them over time (a biofilm), and that a lot of what gets marketed as "bioflex" or "implant-grade plastic" has never actually been tested or published any safety data — same problem as the "implant grade titanium" marketing issue above. On top of that, they simply don't insert well: they lack the smooth, rounded end a glass retainer has, which makes them harder to slide into a piercing channel without catching or scraping it, even at a microscopic level. Because of all this, we don't recommend wearing these for longer than a few hours.
What we actually recommend: glass retainers
We advise glass retainers instead, specifically Gorilla Glass — a brand that's been trusted and APP-approved for years. The newer Body Jewelry Verification Program (the formal brand-by-brand list) hasn't opened its glass phase yet, so you won't see them on that particular list today, but that's a gap in a program that's still catching up, not a gap in their track record. These are handmade from lead-free borosilicate glass — a material that's safe to get pierced with in the first place, doesn't react to any kind of scan, and can be worn long-term without any of the porosity or verification issues plastic has. If you've got surgery with a long recovery ahead, there's no rush to swap back to your original jewelry — you can simply leave the glass in.
They close with a small silicone ring, which makes it easy to loosen or tighten the fit as needed. This matters more than people expect: under anesthesia, young piercings can act up a little and swell, and being able to adjust the jewelry on the spot is genuinely useful.
We carry glass retainers in clear and in skin tones, so they're subtle if you'd rather they not be noticeable.
How the swap actually works
Taking out metal jewelry isn't always easy to do yourself, especially somewhere like a nostril or a healing lobe. You're welcome to come in and let us handle the swap to glass retainers — and while your normal jewelry is out, we can give it a little cleaning session so it's as good as new by the time you're ready to put it back in.
Retainers for every piercing type
- Nostril retainers — for the nose
- Septum retainers — for septum piercings
- Curved retainers — rook, daith, eyebrow, anti-tragus, vertical lip, navel
- Barbell retainers — nipple, bridge, tongue
- Labret retainers — pretty much everything else
See the full retainer collection here.
If your piercing starts acting up after surgery
A vaccine, anesthesia, or really any chemical introduced into your body affects your immune system — and a healing piercing will always be one of the first places to tell you something's off. It might swell a bit, shed a little white discharge, or feel more sensitive than usual. That's normal, and it usually calms down within a few days — you'll generally notice it looking or feeling better by then.
In the meantime: rinse with a saline solution like NeilMed, keep it calm, don't sleep on it — exactly the same aftercare as when the piercing was brand new. If it's genuinely painful or just isn't improving after a few days, come in for a quick check and we'll take a look.
It's also worth double-checking the length of your jewelry after any swelling. It should never sit tight against the piercing — there should always be a little wiggle room, even if it's just a hair's worth.
What about already fully healed piercings?
If you take the jewelry out and can see straight through the piercing — skin-toned inside and out, no redness anywhere in the channel — that piercing has formed complete scar tissue, and there's a very high chance it will never fully close. It's safe to take the jewelry out for as long as you need. It may shrink over time, and sometimes shrinks enough that getting jewelry back in needs a bit of lube and a taper — but a taper makes that a smooth, gentle process, not something to worry about.
Quick answers to the questions people actually search for
Can I keep my piercing in for a scan/MRI? Technically, properly tested titanium is considered MRI-safe in principle — but most hospitals will still ask you to remove it, because staff usually can't verify your jewelry is genuinely implant-grade on the spot, and even non-magnetic metal near the scan area can distort the image.
Do I have to remove ALL my piercings for surgery, even old healed ones? Usually yes, as standard hospital policy, even though a fully healed piercing has essentially no risk of closing. It's less about your piercing and more about the hospital not wanting any metal near an electrocautery tool, full stop.
Will my piercing close if I take the jewelry out for surgery? Depends entirely on age. Fully healed piercings, no. Anything under about 2 years, possibly — which is exactly why a glass retainer is worth getting before your procedure, not after.
Can you actually get pierced with glass jewelry? Yes — lead-free borosilicate and fused quartz glass are both APP-approved materials for initial piercings, not just for retainers.
Does any of this apply to pacemakers or defibrillators? The electrocautery burn risk during surgery applies regardless of what other devices you have — if anything, it's worth mentioning your piercings to your care team alongside any implanted device, since they'll already be planning around electrical safety.
