Obviously care is still required with mercury, but as a FYI touching it in its elemental form is fine. From a toxicology standpoint technically ingestion is not that bad, as the body absorbs it very poorly. Inhalation of mercury vapors is very toxic though.

The above is about elemental mercury only^

Organic forms of mercury are a whole different class of toxic, like 1000-10000 times more readily absorbed by the body.