I'm aged 19, female, and living in Finland. Ever since I was 5 years old I've said that I want to become a nurse, thanks to two of my sisters being nurses and me having great respect towards them and the work they do. Ever since I was 12 I've wanted my nose pierced. Now I'm faced with decisions.
At A Glance Author Asurfael Contact [email protected] IAM Asurfael When N/A During the years the desire to become a nurse faded down to nothing. The same happened to my need to get my nose pierced - I pierced my navel when I was 14, but was soon after forced to give it up since I did it with completely wrong equipment and jewelry, and ended up with a shallow piercing and an infection (back in those days I didn't use the internet, and didn't have any kind of access to information on how to do the piercing - always do your research!). Now after having hard time during puberty I'm slowly starting to find myself and take care of myself, and what I want is becoming the main thing for me. I don't just go along or choose what's easy.
This spring I got myself fit, lost 25 pounds of weight, went jogging, started studying in school. I got myself together, and as a result found myself under the depressed shell that used to be me. I also rediscovered the same desires I had had before I got depressed. Instead of becoming a nurse I wanted to become a doctor though. I still have one year of senior high school left (the education system's somewhat different in Finland), and after that I plan on applying to a university to study medicine, to either become a general doctor or a psychiatrist (to help others find themselves like I did).
However, as I found my love for medicine and helping others again, my love for myself also got into new forms. Or old ones, to be more exact. I no longer wanted my nose or navel pierced. After my bad experience with the navel ring before I was terrified at the thought of getting pierced. In the end I decided to get a labret, since it would be easy to undo (just a small scar if I take it out and that's it). A month later I got my bridge pierced, and I plan on getting more piercings (surface piercings on my arms, a madison, a septum etc.).
The problem is, in Finland and Sweden (where I plan on moving after I'm done with my studies, most likely) you're not allowed to work in a hospital if you've got piercings. Earlobe piercings are tolerated, even many of them. And tattoos of course, since with tattoos they can't claim that it's basically a hole full of germs. With any piercing other than a lobe one you have to however either remove it or simply not work in a hospital.
Now I need to compromise something of myself. And seeing that I'm burning to get the new piercings and tattoos done and I already feel that they're a part of being me, it's my education that gets into problems. Should I just opt for doing something I don't really want, like computer engineering, to keep my modifications? Should I educate myself into being a doctor, knowing that I can't work but hoping that things will change? Or hoping that they'll find me something else to do than work with patients (even if working with patients is what I want to do)?
Just by my intellect and school grades I should be able to do just about anything I want. I'm not the smartest kid on earth, nor do I claim to be. Still I know I'd do my job well. But will I really if as a result I get depressed again thanks to having to remove parts of me? I have about half a year left to decide, and I don't know what I should do.
A part of me wants to get educated, apply for a job, and then call the media if I'm not accepted for my piercings. That would feel right for me. But it won't secure my future. I could just get some other job and keep my piercings, but my desire to be a doctor is almost as strong as my desire to get modified. If I educate myself to become a doctor I might just end up wasting six years or more of my life getting an education without in the end being able to work after all.
I'd want to change people's opinions and show them that just because I'm modified it doesn't mean that I'm a junkie and a whore, or a shoplifter. I want to be a doctor, I want to help people, and most of all I want to show people that being different doesn't make you any worse than them. But how can I do it if I'm not allowed to?
If I choose my own way I'll probably have to spend more time proving myself to others than doing actual work. Instead of being hired instantly because both Sweden and Finland don't have enough doctors available I'll have to prove myself to one person after another. It will be a miracle to find a job that will let me help people and maintain myself as I am. I'm tired of adjusting myself to suit other people's opinions, so I'm afraid that I'll have to give up after spending years devoting my life to the career I'd want to choose.
What's so wrong with piercings then? Well, of course a piercing is a hole in which there are germs. But so far I haven't seen doctors with their fingernails removed because they might have germs under them (nor their skins covered with a permanent coating of some more easily cleaned surface than skin). Also, I haven't heard of anybody being stripped naked for a job interview to check that they don't have any genital piercings for example. I haven't heard of anybody getting fired for hemorrhoids, even if you'd think having those on your skin is a lot worse considering hygiene than a tiny, healed up hole with a piece of jewelry in it.
What is it about, then? It's pretty simple. A while ago there was discussion about whether we should educate nurses to become doctors or not. That suggestion was rejected, with one of the reasons behind it being "But that way we could have doctors who haven't gone through senior high school." Only people of lower working class don't go through senior high school in Finland (and even some of the lower working class goes through it). And a nurse who's gone through it will be looked at in more positive light than a nurse who doesn't have a degree from there. It has studies that are referred to as "general civilization." Just passing it gives people an idea of higher intellect and social class.
In the same way as not going to senior high school, having piercings gives people a stereotypical image of lower intellect and social class. It makes people associate you with druggies, alcoholics, "bikers" shooting up people, and so forth (I'd also like to point out that Hell's Angels and similar clubs aren't really motorcycle clubs but merely criminal organisations disguised as ones).
While Finland has always called itself neutral when considering military actions not to take any sides (even if during history the situation hasn't always been like that), the same people deciding to accept tolerance and neutrality as the official policies have made the decision to deny modified people any "respectable" jobs. In computer engineering it's not considered a bad thing since it's a newfound area of employment, but doctors have traditions. Traditions not easily broken.
Doctors in the public sector are underpaid, overworked and stressed, but still doctors enjoy that special level of appreciation by people just because they're doctors. However, a doctor that would scare your grandmother for the piercings wouldn't be worthy of that same respect. Instead of trying to convince the people to accept the modified people, they take the easy way out and just straight on ban the modified from working as doctors so the reputation of the profession wouldn't be tarnished, working under the excuse of hygiene issues.
For myself, I intend to go for the education I want. If it becomes apparent that I won't get a job as a doctor I'll probably try to apply for a piercer's apprenticeship. At least that way you get one surefire example of not all piercers being dirty and unhygienic (most of them aren't, but how would you convince your grandmother? A doctor's licence should do). I, for my own part, will try to make people see the me behind the piercings. I'll try to set an example. People usually remember the bad examples better than the good ones, but I hope that when they talk about piercings somebody will mention "That nice young lady" in between the conversation.
Who knows, maybe some day I'll succeed, and set an example for people younger than me, making them true to themselves and not afraid to be who they are. I'd encourage everybody to work for their dreams, and not give up just because so many people don't understand them. With a slow and gradual change the society will accept people for who they are. I don't expect to create an utopia just by my own actions, but I hope I'll make a difference. Even if the difference you make is small, it's still a difference. And the small things add up. We'll be the parents of the next generation. Let's hope we'll be more accepted then.