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Show Highlights

Sometimes people wear jewelry. Sometimes people float. What happens when these things overlap? What about piercings?

Graham and Ashkahn concisely explain why it’s a good idea to take that wedding ring off before you float in this episode.

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Okay.

Ashkahn: Welcome. Hey, everybody.

Graham: Hey there. I’m Graham.

Ashkahn: I’m Ashkahn.

Graham: And today’s question is, “Jewelry/piercings in a float tank?”

Ashkahn: Hm.

Graham: Concise.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: I like it.

Ashkahn: To the point.

Graham: Um. No.

Ashkahn: Period.

Graham: Thanks for the question.

Ashkahn: I mean, so, there’s a couple of factors here. One-

Graham: Jewelry can sometimes be piercings.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: So it’s not just a straight separation there.

Ashkahn: This is really just a one question thing here. Well, there’s a lot of salt in these float tanks. I don’t know if you knew that.

Graham: Have you heard?

Ashkahn: But the salt can be pretty, it’s pretty intense. It can be pretty damaging. It can eat through metals and it’s not good for some things. So, which metals will it destroy and which will it won’t? I mean I’m sure-

Graham: We could go into it. There are definitely metals that won’t really be affected by the salt.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: Especially not being in there for such a short period of time.

Ashkahn: But, are you really going to be going through that with each person and the jewelry and piercings that they have?

Graham: And sometimes their jewelry is not made out of the metals that they think it’s made out of.

Ashkahn: Yeah, like a crummy boyfriend back in the day.

Graham: That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Or just a confused person who thought they were wearing their titanium necklace when in fact they were wearing their silver necklace, you know?

Ashkahn: I just thought titanium came out of those little things you put quarters in and spin to get the egg out.

Graham: That is true. If they have just plastic jewelry, you can wear plastic jewelry.

Ashkahn: Yeah, I’m sure there’s a couple, like jade or-

Graham: That’s totally fine.

Ashkahn: But here’s the other thing. It can be uncomfortable. When you’re in the float tank, you just feel everything that’s on your body. If you have bracelets or necklaces or things like that on, it might just make for a slightly worse float experience. So it’s a combination of those two things that makes you be like, well, “what’s really the point of keeping things in?” I mean, I guess there’s piercings where you can’t-

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: -just conveniently take things out of your body.

Graham: And fortunately, those ones are actually often very controlled. And in that case, you want to check with the person who did your piercing. Or, yeah, the person who’s in charge of doing your body work is who you want to check in with.

Ashkahn: And it shouldn’t have been done very recently.

Graham: Yeah, definitely. Healed up. Healed up first. I mean, I know that you soak those things in salt water but it’s a different kind of salt water. Yeah.

Ashkahn: But in general, if it’s rings or bracelets or whatever, if it’s easy to take off, earrings, take it off. Why keep it on?

Graham: And for me, it really is that risk of what if they thought they knew what material it was and it wasn’t? Or what if they’re wearing this thing in and the person running the shop was pretty sure that it would be fine and it totally wasn’t fine. Are you now responsible for replacing this person’s jewelry-

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: -and upsetting them? It just feels like another one of those things since there’s the option to remove stuff. When people have dyed hair, you have them contact their person who does their hair, their hairstylist, and see if it’s safe to go in water or soak in something like a float tank and maintain their color and style and it’s the same for piercings if it is permanent. Otherwise, it’s removable and why ever risk it? Pretty much like why-

Ashkahn: Just say no.

Graham: -take these risks.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Just like drugs. Just don’t even risk it. So, yeah, there you go. That’s it.

Graham: Yep. Jewelry and piercings are just like drugs.

So if you have your own float tank problems you want to send our way, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.

Ashkahn: There’s a little box in there. There’s a little box. You’ll type stuff into it.

Graham: Yep. And it sends directly to our brain. So, yeah, we had that surgery done. Take advantage of it.

Ashkahn: All right. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Graham: Bye, everyone.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Funding your center through Kickstarter – DSP 119

Crowdfunding has made so many projects possible that would otherwise not exist. It seems perfect for niche ideas, concepts that would otherwise never see the light of day, and passion projects that just need to happen. This sounds perfect for float centers, but there are some caveats. 

Crowdfunding is time intensive and there’s not guarantee of success. Aside from that, there are some issues with it that complicate things for float centers that other crowdfunded projects likely won’t face. Graham and Ashkahn talk about the successes of float center crowdfunding and the not-so-successes as well. 

Don’t Build Your Own Float Tank! – DSP 118

For anyone considering a DIY float tank, give this episode a listen first. This isn’t a discussion on the merits of doing things one way versus another or expressing an opinion on one side and playing devil’s advocate for the other. Graham and Ashkahn know painfully well from personal experience the pitfalls of falling into the hubris trap of thinking you can build your own float tanks. They built two large open tanks in Float On and even years later they still cause headaches.

What’s more, they’ve spoken with dozens of people who’ve also gone through this themselves and heard their horror stories after they didn’t listen to the advice of not doing it.

The perception that it can be a cost-cutting measure or a more reliable way to get an operating float tank in your center by going DIY is generally pretty flawed. There’s so much to it that you just can’t consider before the fact.

Should Your Float Center have a Blog? – DSP 117

This seems like a good idea on paper. It helps with SEO stuff for Google. It gives you an outlet to write about floating and share information about the industry. And it seems to fall in line with something that other businesses do, right?

So what are the downsides? How much time and effort does a blog really take? What sort of impact does it have for a float center? Graham and Ashkahn lay out the pros and cons as well as things you may not initially consider about the responsibility of having a blog.

Thoughts on Buying Yelp Ads – DSP 116

There are lots of businesses that experience the dogged persistence of Yelp sales people calling them. Float On has done both buying Yelp ad space and living without it and Graham and Ashkahn break down exactly what that experience was like.

They also go into exactly what Yelp ads mean and how it impacts your float center (or doesn’t, as the case may be) as well as how well Yelp stacks up in comparison to other ad sources.

When is it Time to Open a Second Float Center? – DSP 115

Okay, so… Float On only has one location (not counting Float On Hong Kong) and there’s certainly a reason for that. Graham and Ashkahn have toyed with the idea of opening up another center multiple times throughout the years but something else always came up. As they’ve met more people in the industry, they’ve seen some of the pitfalls and successes from people opening additional locations, franchises and whatever else. They share their thoughts on when they think it’d be best to open and why they say to wait a little bit. 

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