Glow powder particle size guide

While there are obvious manufacturing and safety constraints, we work hard to bring to the market as many colors and sizes as possible. This is to accommodate the various use cases and experiments our community comes up with. But it can also make it tricky for you to choose! So let's take a look at what we know about particle sizes.

Glow Powder 85-150µm (microns)

ℹ️ This is the scarification gold standard, according to the community. The larger particle size makes it slightly brighter thanks to it having more surface area and a better glow-to-coating ratio.

⚠️ This dust is very similar to fine sand, both visually and in hardness. This means that with sufficient friction, it will wear down sharp tools like blades and needles, just like sandpaper. This is especially true for tattoo gun needles, which move very fast. When used with a glow powder mixture, they will become dull very fast.

Glow Dust 35-40µm (microns)

ℹ️ This very fine powder is mostly used in mixes with inks and liquids. It is reported to work much better in hand-poke tattoos because it is more easily pushed into the skin by the needles and wears them out less.

⚠️ Glow dust is particularly fine and volatile. It must be handled with care and ideally with a mask and/or in a ventilated space to avoid inhaling it. While the dust itself isn't particularly toxic, the amorphous silica coating is basically sharp sand, which can clog and damage the fine pulmonary alveoli.

⚠️ When glow dust is wet and then dries back, it tends to aggregate into a solid. This is likely due to Van der Waals forces between the silica particles. If you mix it in a liquid, make sure it doesn't dry out, or it might not be recoverable!

🎨About mixing

We haven't found any reason why different sizes shouldn't be mixed. In fact, some community members have speculated that a carefully adjusted mix might behave even better in scarifications:

Disclaimer: All guides, information, and advice provided by Abyss Walker are for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing published by Abyss Walker should be considered encouragement or endorsement of self-harm, unsafe practices, or illegal activities. Body modification procedures carry inherent risks. Any actions taken based on the information provided are undertaken entirely at the reader's own risk. Abyss Walker and its collaborators accept no responsibility or liability for any injury, loss, damage, or other consequences resulting from the use or misuse of this information.