29 thoughts on “Surprising the x-ray tech

  1. since my cat’s vet is willing to put my cat’s x rays on disc for me, i seriously hope that those of you* with interesting piercings ask if the techs will do it for you. i like x rays in general, but pierced ones amuse me.

    *i’ve only got my lobes pierced

  2. How do you scan x-rays so they show up like that? I have some great x-rays of my head with all of my jewellery in (I have a friend who is an imaging tech at the hospital, heh), I’d love to post them on my blog or send them in to you!

  3. i thought you were supposed to take any metal off your body before an xray because of…some reason i dont remember

  4. The only time my piercings have shown up on xray was when I had to remove my navel piercing when they xrayed my back – guess they should have panned down a few inches to see the apadravya…

  5. Sometimes the dentist has me take everything facial off, even my earrings. They said the ones in my mouth can block the view of a cavity or something. They also told me that x-rays of metal damages the camera or film or something. Not sure how true that is because I had to have x-rays of the pins in my knee.

  6. sewsweet, the reason they tell you to remove any jewelry is because the metal reflects light and could cause glares or other light areas on the x-ray that could make it difficult to examine the area that needs to be x-rayed.

  7. Haha I remember I went for X-rays when I had my bellybutton ring in.. It was huge and blocked too much of the bones and he made me take it out.. and he deleted the picture 🙁 I wish I would of had my nipples then! It would of been funny to see!

  8. I believe it’s MRIs you have to take out metal piercings for, because it makes them heat up or someing like that. I could also be completely talking out of my ass, though…..

    Anyhow, I love piercing x-rays. ha ha ha!!!

  9. magnetic resonance imaging uses, as the name suggests, a really big electromagnet, if you were wearing magnetically active metals it would rip them out of you, and probably ruin the machine

  10. I really like x-ray pictures…
    I wonder if I can get copies of my head x-ray that included my septum piercing(I had been wearing the jewelry hidden and forgot about it when I had a head/jaw x-ray done for Wisdom tooth extraction). The dentist and the surgeon thought it was funny. The surgeon actually let me wear my septum retainer during the surgery as well.
    In other x-rays I’ve had done the technician let me wear my nipple barbells through a series of spine x-rays.

  11. I speak from experience:

    Metal with the x-rays is harmless.. however as some have said, it can potential hide something that they want to see. But, say you are having your chest x-rayed to check out your heart and lungs.. nipple piercings are harmless.. unless they’re huge, but in general a nipple ring won’t hide anything siginificant.

    For dental xrays, if you are put intow the 360 degree xray machine, the one that turns around your head while you bite down on a peice of plastic.. its for safety reasons on top of the others. The moving peices can get very close to your face and ears and if there were a snag… it would hurt. haha

    As for MRI’s.. most piercings are harmless – as long as quality jewelry is used. Good jewelry – low to nil nickel content, so it wont be affected by the magnet. But if you have some cheap dollar store crap… chances are it will be magnetic. The force is NOT strong enough to tear it out of your body, however, it can lift it, and that;s uncomfortable. During an MRI a while ago, my mom was in with me (since i am extremely clausterphobic… ugh) and she had a PENNY in her shirt pocket.. they kept having to repeat the first part until my mom noticed the penny… it ewas pulling her shirt out towards the machine, and causing interference. When I got for my MRI’s, i leave in my helix piercing, as well as any surface piercing.

    The heating up part is the tattoos. Since some tattoo inks contain microscopic metal components, the molecules start getting agitated by the magnet force and cause a burning sensation (to the point yet, is there is enough of a high metal concentration, one can suffer actual burns.. but they are not instant… most of the time the scan can be stopped before that occurs.)

    The real danger with MRI’s are the BIG peices of metal… like an oxygen tank, a gurney with metal railings, and x-ray vests, which, once introduced into the magnetic feild, will fly right out of anybody’s grip and smash into the core of the machine. There have been reported deaths from that, the most recent one being a young boy who was killed when someone entered with an oxygen tank. It flew towards the inside of the tube where the boy’s head was, and killed him instantly. … but those are the horror stories.. mri’s are generally harmless. And people going in for them are always .. ALWAYS checked and double-checked.

    lol all that to say that I actually have a really cool jaw x-ray that shows a few of my earings, my nostril piercings, my two centre tongue piercings and the 18 plates and 42 screws in my jaw from surgery. Its really neat. i look like robo-man. lol

  12. I’d just like to add that the MRI tattoo issue isn’t always valid (in fact, it doesn’t seem valid most of the time with newer tattoos). I’m a MRI regular thanks to a brain tumor I had diagnosed and removed while in high school (I’m in collge now), and none of my tattoos have ever so much as changed temperature even slightly. The one on the “top” of my shoulder (it goes from neck to shoulder joint covering the trapezious muscle) has been through multiple MRI sessions and has been fine each and every time, just sos ya knows.

  13. I think that the MIR/tattoo issue might be with tattoo inks using iron oxides. But I also don’t think that you’d find many modern tattoo inks with iron oxides in them, outside of a prison. (Which doesn’t qualify as modern anyways.) Even then, I’m not sure if you would really have enough iron under your skin to get a significant adverse reaction; I’d like to see some published studies on it.
    I’ve had this great (well, I think it’s great) idea of getting my skull x-rayed, with all the piercings in, and then having the image screen printed on a shirt or jacket. Sadly, I can’t find anyone that will take an unneccesaryhead x-ray for me.

  14. The other week I got mouth xrays done at the dentist. She asked me to remove my vertical labret and my glasses. Funnily enough I forgot I have my septum pierced (I keep it flipped up) and for a few seconds neither one of us could figure out what jewelry had shown up in my xray!

  15. Hmmm I love that I can look at this picture at work and no one will know I’m looking at a pierced penis if they happen to glance over… it’s making me all tingly 😀

  16. Between March and Sept I have had three MRIs and nothing has happened with my tattoos. I wasnt allowed to keep my various piercings in during the scans.

  17. I have had a neck MRI with ten pieces of jewelry in my head. I would not advise it, though. My jewelry was all implant grade surgical steel, and as such does not respond to even the incredibly strong electromagnet in there. It is NOT safe to have an MRI unless you are absolutely certain about your jewelery beinng nonferrous.

    As far as I know, tattoos are usually not a probelm (mine weren’t) because new inks no longer have the trace metals that could be found in inks used decades ago.

  18. I am always really fascinated by Xray pictures or mods… I would really like to see maybe some subdermal implants eg on foreheads etc

  19. hahaha that’s freaking awesome..

    Neat, neat picture.

    Kinda undrelated, but my mom still has a picture from when I broke my arm when I was one, and I had this dinosaur I loved to carry around, and I was so scared, I wouldn’t let them do it without my dinosaur. hah, so I just have a arm holding a dinosaur X-Ray, not so cool, but I think X-Ray pictures are neat… Wonder what that doctor said.. hee hee

    Implant X-rays would look sweet.

  20. It’s up to you, but if it’s my body that needs imaging I will take everything out.

    I would rather not have a radiologist distracted for even a second by my impressive . Who knows, the undivided attention he gives me may save my life.

  21. i’m planning on getting my septum pierced tomorrow, and i have to get my wisdom teeth removed the 19th of july…i was wondering if i put a plastic retainer in and flipped it up, would it show up?

  22. it won’t show up if it’s plastic.

    when i had my wisdoms removed, they took an x-ray beforehand. i didn’t have to take any of my metal facial jewellery out… didn’t even have to take out my tongue for the actual procedure, and i was knocked out too.

    i had an mri today and they made a huge hassle out of it… took me a half hour to put all my jewellery back in, and i have two more appointments in a couple weeks. happy happy, joy joy joy. not.

  23. i got an eyebrow piercing about 2 months ago and i have to get an MRI on my knee today.
    will i have to remove it?

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