It itches and causes a rash that gets worse with prolonged exposure. I can't even tolerate surgical steel and many gold "hypoallergenic" pieces because those bitches still use nickel as part of the alloy.

It's in all sorts of things. Buttons on jeans, zippers, tools, wire, eyeglasses, and obviously jewelry.

It takes an hour or two of direct contact to start itching and getting raised bumps, less time if it is low quality metal like uncoated wire or something. Prolonged contact greater than a few hours leads to sores and it gets really really itchy and gross from there on out. Stupid jeans.

How people deal with it is just avoid metal things as much as possible because you never know if nickel is mixed in. For metal jewelry you can pay a pretty penny for higher purity metals with a much lower concentration of nickel (hard to be completely nickel free due to natural impurities) or just wear silicone/resin/leather jewelry.

Jeans though....those buttons are gonna get you. Most people paint the inside button with nail polish but that shit rubs off quickly. I just make sure I'm wearing at least 2 layers of barrier fabric between my skin and the jeans (1 layer can be pretty permeable).