A hole in the head
8th June 2007 by Patricia Valdata
So, I got my ears pierced last October. (Yes, this relates to communication, eventually. Be patient.)
Most young women I know get this done around age 11; I waited considerably longer, being a total wuss when it comes to needles. Although painful, the event itself wasn’t so bad–I was distracted by the red shag carpet on the ceiling of the tattoo/piercing salon–and the acute pain faded within minutes, although I didn’t get a good night’s sleep for the next six weeks. I almost passed out the evening I took out the captive bead rings and put in my own brand new, titanium studs for the first time. (Blomdahl. I recommend them highly.)
A side effect of having this done is that I really notice other people’s piercings now; instead of turning away in disgust, I am interested to see what they’re wearing. I have almost gotten used to the baristas at my local Brew-ha-ha, young women with hair dyed interesting colors and assorted multiple lip, eyebrow, ear, tongue and nose piercings. Having been pierced once, though, and in a relatively benign area, I cannot fathom going through it again on more tender facial parts (and let’s not take the concept any farther south). But I see more and more people–and not just those under age 30–with a lot of bling sticking out of their faces, and arms fully tattooed.
All of which brings me to the communication issue. I’m an avid reader of Ned Lundquist’s Job of the Week newsletter, and the other day while following up on one of its leads I ran across the web site of a company that not only posted a job description and qualifications, but also its dress-code rules that female employees could have no more than two piercings per ear lobe, that male employees could not wear even one earring, and that no one was allowed to show any tattoos while in the office.
I have been wondering about the impression such highly decorated people make on a job interview, so tell me, how do you react to studded and be-dragoned interviewees? Is body art a legit form of communication? If so, what does it say about the one wearing it and to the one observing it? Does it have a place in a modern office environment besides the art department? Are ultra-conservative companies overreacting?
Time to shop for more earrings…
Pat
June 12th, 2007 at 7:58 am
In my opinion, dress codes have long been a ripe area for a gender discrimination class action. In the case mentioned, why are women allowed 2 piercings per ear and men none? Begging the question, why are women are limited to two per ear? How is this policed? What if the two piercings per ear are in the daith and the tragus? What if you have six piercings but remore the earrings in excess of two per ear (or wear the “invisible” sort) before coming to work? Is the limit just on ear piercings and silent about eyebrow piercings and the like?
There is some line where a style of attire and grooming becomes a distraction in the workplace, but some common sense needs to applied here. And some fairness.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Pat,
Funny you should mention this. I’ve been thinking lately about the many new and unusal forms of communication–most of which I don’t like but at least understand their value to their particular audiences.
Tagging (also known as graffiti) is a form of communication that marks territories, gives the tagger a sense of achievement/purpose and costs taxpayers a lot of money to remove. Tagging increases during the summer months when kids aren’t in school and get bored with “nothing to do.” But, similar to the need for texting, tagging says: “I EXIST!!”
Tattoos also are communication, self-identification, symbols of self-worth, messages about life styles and loved ones. Their permanence bothers me because I think there are some people who would like to have an eraser when they wake up the next morning — or when they turn 50 and wonder why the hell they did it.
Piercings have a place in there somewhere — I’m just not sure where. Pierced ears started out as adornment and now — at its most extreme — communicate excess, lack of good judgement and an ability to (a) withstand the pain of creating new holes and (b) plenty of time to load up all those rings.
So, yes, piercings and clothings say a lot about a person. I don’t think we have the definitions in place yet to know what they say.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:09 am
Seems a bit draconian to me. A person’s outward appearance doesn’t always belie the person’s competency, initiative, and character. Any company that still uses this as some kind of measure of corporate culture acceptance should probably institute office uniforms if they want to achieve visual monotony.