Vanessa Merit Nornberg got her start in accessories at the tender age of 11 with the most notorious collection of chandelier earrings in the whole 5th grade. At age 18 her love of fashion drew her to New York City, where she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from New York University, and her credentials as a member of the international fashion police from walking the beat in the wholesale district. She now serves as the Bombshell, the head of the family, and the company's primary ballbuster.

Dale Parris has his origins in product placement and testing, owing to his adolescent affinity for piercing multiple holes in his own ears and those of his friends. He packed all his jewelry and moved to New York from Oakland, California, where he developed innovative delivery strategies for major industry players, and eventually rose to his current position as the Godfather of merchandising. Dale is responsible for sales, customer service, design, stock repenishment/supervision, and graphic design/web management.

Jose Cordero brings to the table a lifetime of selective adornment, and a classical sense of propriety in both style and demeanor. From king of his block in the Dominican Republic to leader of the creative team in New York, Jose is widely recognized as the Don of design. Jose is responsible for sales, customer service, design, and graphic design/web management.

Emily Schuett -- Account Executive, sales, design, PR, stock supervision/replenishment, customer service.

Jeff Petracca -- Account Executive, sales, customer service, PR.

Lia Glynias -- Account Executive, sales, customer service.

Jennifer Elice -- Director of Sales and Marketing, sales, PR, customer service

Nicole Marks -- order handling, shipping.

Blanca Rodriguez -- order handling, shipping.

Jennylind Parris -- order handling, shipping.

Metal Mafia designs, manufactures, and imports unique accessories and body jewelry. The current line now includes 316L surgical steel, grade 2 solid titanium, pyrex glass, and organics. The majority of the jewelry (steel and titanium) is produced in Korea. The organics and glass come from several different areas.

The company was started in August 2004 by Vanessa Nornberg, Dale Parris, and Jose Cordero. After working for others in the industry and seeing how to not run a successful business, the three decided to form a company dedicated to doing things the right way, with the customers needs always coming in first.

Metal Mafia relies on the industry experience of its founder and core staff, as well as its exclusive designs for its market differentiation. Metal Mafias' competitive edge is that all of its design work is done in-house, and there is no market cherry-picking to pad the line, unlike competitor products. In addition, Metal Mafia has developed a specialized delivery system that allows it to have an on-time delivery rate that is 25% higher than competitors. Metal Mafia sells only to retailers, and does no direct to consumer business.

Metal Mafia accessories aims to introduce a better business standard to the accessories industry, which is currently plagued by late deliveries, poor customer service, continually waning quality, and unchanging prices.

In choosing products for this review, my major disappointment was the lack of larger gauge items that Metal Mafia offered through its regular online catalog. 00 Gauge tends to be the largest that most items are offered without a custom inquiry. It would really be nice to see items such as the ones being reviewed here offered in sizes above 00ga.

The product that caught my eye the most out of the pieces I chose to review was the blue titanium tunnels using 316L steel barbells in place of o-rings (the product code for this set is TSPX7). This is a creative design that I have not seen before and it seemed like a good alternative to the standard tunnels with o-rings. The barbells are somewhat tiny and require some skill (or two people) to insert. The hardest part of the insertion is not putting the barbell through the holes of the earlet, but screwing the tiny spiked end onto the barbell while the jewelry is in your ear. The earlets are the most polished of the pieces chosen for review and have a very nice color to them. Metal Mafia offers them in a few different color choices and in sizes ranging from 6 gauge to 00 gauge. The reviewed pair came in 4 gauge. I'd strongly urge them to increase their color choices for both the tunnels and barbells and add larger size choices to the earlets. While this piece can be a hassle to insert due to the tiny barbell ends, insertion was easier overall than I had expected.

Two jeweled pieces were also selected for this review, a circular barbell with cat head ends (HSCAT) in 14 gauge and a set of 4 gauge earlets (TTGBL) featuring jewels in the face of the earlets. Red jewels were featured as the cat's eyes and blue jewels were featured on the face of the earlets. The colors of the jewels are excellent, pick up light very well and seem to be firmly set into the jewelry, although only time will tell how well they are set. All jewels used in Metal Mafia's products are cubic zirconia or Swarovski crystal. The cat head barbell ends are nicely crafted and the barbell itself is standard barbell quality. The earlets do not seem to be well polished and have imperfections in the steel portion of the jeweled faces. Both pieces are easy to insert and the cat barbell ends screw on firmly.

The black bolt titanium tunnels (TBLTBK) are also easy to insert, but also display a lack of polish to their finish. However this isn't noticeable on either the jeweled earlets or this pair without close inspection, and both pairs look perfect when worn. The jeweled earlets are more attention grabbing, while the bolts are basic and have a very clean design. In fact, the lack of polish gives this particular pair a more industrial look.

The final pair of plugs was a big disappointment. They are a set of 4 gauge South Park Kyle plugs (*SPPLKY). The plugs have screw-on ends that are a little bigger than 4 gauge and feature indentions for the accompanying o-rings. The front features an image of Kyle and the back says "You Bastards!". The backs will never even be seen unless the wearer chooses to wear one or both plugs in reverse. The image of Kyle is also very low quality. These plugs came prepackaged in hard plastic cases. If the quality was better, these would be an amazing set of plugs for any South Park fan. Better quality would also prompt me to suggest offering these in larger sizes, but with the current image of the character, this would only magnify the low quality of these plugs.

Metal Mafia has some unique designs to choose from and seem to be expanding their catalog. I would definitely recommend the tunnels with barbells to anyone seeking a different look. The other pieces are also worth checking out, with the sole exception of the South Park plugs. This supplier has extremely low prices as they are geared towards wholesale purchases by retailers, so if you're seeking inexpensive products, Metal Mafia is worth a look.