My story begins ten years ago now when I was 15 and not far away from taking my GCSE exams. The seemingly small decision to get my eyebrow pierced has impacted on events in my life since then. My life has taken a different course than the one I would have wished for and my hope is that people do not do even the most innocuous things without considering the consequences.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact [email protected] When N/A I had my eyebrow pierced over the Christmas holidays not 6 months before I was due for my exams. I decided in my 'wisdom' that it would be acceptable because teachers seemed to turn a blind eye to those with their nostrils pierced and they surely could not discriminate against me without taking similar measures against them. I was wrong. In the end my reasoning with them had no effect and I believe my treatment was in pact due to a personality clash with one of the teachers involved.
The whole time I was at school I was a good student who got good marks. I wasn't one of the people I saw being carted off to the headmaster's office every other day. In fact I don't think the head was even aware of my existence prior to the fateful eyebrow piercing!
The reasons, all these years later for getting the piecing have become a little vague in my head, but I know that I was certainly not expecting the reaction I got at school. By the time I went back to school after the holidays I was not really thinking about my eyebrow at all. The lunchtime of the day back the teacher with the issues with me marched me out of class and said while being in my face "I think you know what this is about". Of course I feigned ignorance at this point until she started yelling at me over and over, and was just plain rude and abusive. I actually think that this teacher was threatened by me, I always had an opinion and they weren't opinions that were easy to break down. My school was generally rubbish so I think she feared someone who raised questions that she could not answer! Anyway, she was very confrontational from the beginning over this. Me being 15 and stubborn, I dug my heels in.
I decided when I was sent to the headmaster's office that I would reason with him. This was initially going well I thought. I had told him that because of his concerns about health and safety I would put a bar in instead of the existing ring to minimise it catching on things and for a few days the issue died down. My dad didn't want me expelled either and went to get me a bar while I was at school (thinking about my dad who had probably never gone into a piercing studio, and having little idea of what I needed, going there breaks my heart that he would go into a daunting place and have to ask questions on my behalf).
To my mind the hateful teacher who had it in for me had a massive influence over the heads decision as at first he was receptive and would talk to me with respect as we tried to figure out a compromise. In one of my many meetings with the head at this time I was given a letter to give to my father. My dad happened to pick me up that day and he already had the letter. In the letter it said that I would not be permitted to have any jewellery in my eyebrow, therefore backing out on everything we had previously agreed. At reading this, I went marching back to the school and practically knocked the office door down! I should not have done this, but the way the school handled it from the start had been completely unfair and this was the final straw for me. And while in the short term I got to be cool because I had yelled at the head and told him to go fuck himself or some such which lots of people heard, this high doesn't last for long!
The upshot of my simple eyebrow pieced was getting expelled from school. Lots of students were threatened with it but it generally never happened. I was a good student and was expelled at the first sign of 'trouble'.
Now I am 26 and I have been playing catch up with my life since that time. I had no qualifications and did a multitude of rubbish jobs for years until I realised that I should go and get an education. Finally I went to university with people 5 years younger than me and while it wasn't so bad, I would rather have done it when I was 18. I found it very hard to get back into education after I initially left it because I didn't know the correct routes and nobody fought for me.
Things are ok with me now but I still have concerns about what I have done in my life. Nowadays my modifications are more discrete as I am scared of similar things happening now. People will judge you regardless of how you are as a person and I'm sure teenagers can live without horrible teachers but remember - you are unlikely to change their minds regardless of what you say. Try to think about the coming years before getting something that teachers can see. I wish we could all do as we pleased without prejudice but its not that simple and unless you are going to be the one to change the world I wouldn't recommend it!