As much as I love my parents they don't understand why I get mods. Every time I go home with a new piercing or tattoo I'm met with a rolling of the eyes; catch a 'it's just a phase' look passing across my mother's face; endure a lecture from my father about it's your body, you can do what you want but why do you do that? I believe this is a common occurrence within the modded community, and sometimes it is hard to explain why you get mods. Not everyone will understand the way that it can transform the way you feel about yourself, making you much more confident than you were. Not everyone will understand the addiction (because that's what it seems like) to getting more and more mods and piercings. Almost everyone will tell me it's a bad idea when I'm applying for a job.
At A Glance Author wolfbane Contact [email protected] When N/A So whenever I go for an interview I'm met with the usual helpful advice from my parents; take your piercings out, don't dye your hair, don't show your tattoos. Somehow my appearance becomes more important than my ability to do the job. I've always believed that first impressions, while they do matter, can be overturned; I've met several people who have made a brilliant first impression on me, yet turned out to be complete idiots, and vice versa. If a person can do a job properly then it shouldn't matter what they look like. I can understand why mods may not be appropriate for the job, but in the interview they shouldn't matter.
So I leave my piercings in, dye my hair black and purple and show my tattoos. I don't do it to be deliberately contrary, make myself intimidating to the interviewers or to continue to be a rebel. I do it because I want to show people that first impressions aren't always what they seem.
Over the last few months I've had several interviews. I quit my job in April because it wasn't what I wanted, and while I had interviews for jobs that I could do I was turned down, often without an explanation. I was turned down for jobs where I left my mods on show, and I was turned down for a job when I took my piercings out and covered up my tattoos. I was getting increasingly frustrated; I've worked since I was 16 and I've worked hard, being unemployed for months was driving me mad, particularly since I was trying not to get any more mods in case I was offered a job where I'd have to take them out before they healed.
I was surprised when I got an interview for a teaching assistant post at a local school, not least because I'd applied for the job mostly out of desperation. I rang my mother and told her the news, and called into my dad's school to tell him. The kids in my dad's school stared at me. The teacher's in my dad's school stared at me. I was dressed normally for me, but for the people who knew me only as my dad's crazy eldest daughter I was a bit 'out there'. Bear this in mind when you remember I was going to an interview to be a teaching assistant in a primary school. So I told my parents the news. The first thing they said? Take your piercings out. And I was going to � I wanted to make a good, 'normal' impression, even if the job wasn't what I wanted.
But I forgot.
I turned up with black and blonde hair, a smart black top and trousers, and mods everywhere.
I got offered the job on the spot.
My parents said nothing when I told them I'd left my piercings in and got the job. The staff and governors interviewing me said nothing about my piercings. The only mention was from the head asking if I'd be okay with taking them out when I'm at work � anything I get done is fine with him.
I will be taking my piercings out when I go to work � health and safety dictates that if I'm around children then the chances are my piercings could get pulled out, and as the headmaster said, the kids might want them but they're at least 10 years too young. If I get asked about my mods then I'm not going to hide from answering, and I know that I'm going to get comments from parents. I might be considered not suitable for the position, but again it comes down to this � if I can do the job properly then nothing else matters.
Maybe attitudes towards mods are changing. Changing slowly, but changing nonetheless. Maybe in a few years people won't look twice at a policeman, a school teacher, a politician with mods. I guess time will tell.
In the meantime, I've celebrated with another piercing.