Board Thread:The B&B/@comment-27156423-20180530141912/@comment-24588058-20181024170319

It certainly does make sense from an artifact perspective. There are numerous artifacts whose effects or downsides are either not reversible, or simply not reversible after a certain period of time. That being said, I'm sure artifacts that have an outside effect, such as Mary Mallon's Butcher Knife, would still behave normally (transferring the disease from one person to another). Though that does bring up the question of how the then-transferred artifact-caused cancer would behave if it is neutralizable. . . . ?

That being said, to answer your question, if you do wish a time limit to the effects becoming irreversible, I doubt it'd be a problem. Most likely, it would be closer to the 3-4 day mark (or a certain percentage of the body, though I don't know if that's a thing or not). Artie might be hypothesizing the same thing, given he has had decades of experience and has likely run into at least one or two similar artifacts whose effects are irreversible after a certain time period (not counting ones we already know; you're welcome to use names without completely defining the artifact, as the show did a lot). It might be something that Claudia asks for confirmation or as a question, and Artie replies grimly. I'll leave that to you.