When I was in the 10th grade of high school I decided that I wanted to start piercing my ears. I ended up with over 20 holes in each ear after about 6 months and decided that I wanted to do different types of piercings. By the end of my senior year of high school I had already had well over 150 piercings. They weren't, of course, all there at the same time, but in general, my gross amount of piercings in three years was vastly rising.
At A Glance Author Erszabet Contact [email protected] IAM Erszabet When N/A
I finally graduated and started going to a community college near my home. I still had quite a few facial piercings and my ears were at one inch. I didn't have a problem finding a job in the summer between my senior year or high school and my freshman year of college. I was a retail worker at a second hand clothing shop. My duties included: ringing up customers on the register, bagging and folding their clothes and just in general; being friendly.
After a few months of that job though, I became kind of tired of being asked over and over from each and every customer: "Doesn't that hurt your face?" or "Don't your ears hurt?" It was a never-ending cycle. A neverending barrage of insults and comments. So I ended up quitting that job right before school started. I figured I wouldn't really need that job since I was living back at my parents house and going to school full time. So I started my classes, job free and worry free, because college doesn't care if you have multiple piercings in your face or not. I decided though that two of my bottom lip rings had to go. But I would keep my labret and monroe and buy a septum retainer to hide that piercing.
I finished my first semester in school, but a problem arose. My boyfriend was moving up from Indiana to live with me. This meant that we were going to get an apartment and I was going to need a job. So immediately I went out on a job search. I made sure to take my labret stud out when I went into each place searching for a job. I figured the less facial piercings I had visible, the more likely it was that I would get a job. So after a week of searching, I finally got hired at Deja Vu in the love boutique. I was told that I couldn't wear my labret stud, and I was fine with it. A few weeks after I was working there I was told that I could wear it. So the only piercings I had visible still, were my monroe, nostril and labret. That's not too many.
I had a problem later though and got fired from my job. I figured it'd be even easier if I took my nostril ring out and just had my labret and monroe visible. I figured once I found a job i could always have them repierced if I wanted to. It took me over a month to find a job. Why? Because I STILL had piercings in my face. I got a lot of grief from friends about taking a ton of my piercings out. I was told that I was a "poser." But piercings don't make a person. They may change how you feel about yourself, (which mine did for a while, because they made me feel good about myself. They still do, I still love piercings, but due to my situation I can't have them right now. But why does this fact make me a poser? Why does taking a few of my facial piercings out make me a poser?
I still have one inch earlobes and multiple largely stretched holes in my ears. But because i took a few facial piercings out for a job, I am a poser. I don't think it's fair for a lot of the piercing community to think of you as a trader if you remove a few piercings. I see a few people who stretch their ears just to be trendy, but I don't go out of my way to tell them they're stupid and trendy because they only want to stretch their ears to 0 gauge because their favorite band Blink 182 has their ears stretched.
I took my lobe stretching seriously, if i hadn't I wouldn't have taken two years to stretch them to an inch and taken the time to take care of every other piercing I've ever had. I've never had an infection, I've never taken piercing lightly either. I just know that once I have a job that accepts me for who I am, I know there'll be no problem with me putting piercings back in my face. So take a small example from me. Just because someone you know once had a ton of piercings, but then removes a few of them, it doesn't give you the right to criticize them, and ostricize them. It isn't fair to them, or the piercing community in general. If their body is such a big concern to you, then you better sit back and think what you're doing to yours. It's not your body, don't worry about it.