I'm a tattooist and art student, neither have issues with my appearance. Advice for you, for any white collar job, nothin below wrist, or above collar. If you go there, odds are that you better be in this industry or extremely talented as an a athelete or musician if you want to make a living wage. Blue collar jobs are a little more forgiving, but getting facial mods past the HR dept will be tough.

Hahaha, I think i may have issues if he had a hamster up his butt (that poor hamster lol)... I recall a good while ago, reading a post (perhaps on BME?) about a lady who worked as a lawyer (or something of the same stature) with facial tattoos who wore make up to cover them. I found this quite amusing, not in a bad way, but the fact that she still had them regardless- I often wondered if anyone from her work ever saw her without the make up...

I always made sure when I went for job interviews my tattoos were partially visable so the knew what they were getting into. I don't believe I was ever knocked back because of them, quite the contrary when working in hip cafes or on university campuses around melbourne!

Blue collar jobs never interested me though...

I'm interning at a hospital lab. They allow nose studs, any ear piercings as long as there are no dangly earrings, and to keep tattoos covered when possible. I'm not that heavily modded, but I was kinda nervous about all my ear holes when I got into the profession. We don't directly interact with patients anyway, so it hasn't been much of an issue. No one has commented on my stretched ears, either. I always keep my septum hidden as well. The town I live in is pretty liberal, so that definitely helps! All in all...no biggie :)

The dresscode at my job has changed several times - i'vebeen therefor almost 3 years now. I work in a call centre for a bank.  I've had to wear long sleeves in the middle of Summer, and either wear clear jewelry, take it our, or flip it up [septum] when it comes to piercings.  They have no issue with hair colour [so far] and neither did they with my earlobes being stretched - which look better with jewelry in them than out anyway.


At job interviews, i tend to hide most of my mods, but ask about their policies.  If they give me the thumbs up, i put everything back in there and then.

Re: people's reactions - you grow used to them tbh. The stares become something you don't notice most of the time, but they can make people uncomfortable if they're in your company and they aren't used to it.  Rude comments can easily be answered in an honest way that embarrasses the person making the remark.  Example - two people walking past me. One goes "Man have you seen that one? How many piercings has she got?!"

I just turn around and go "17 " and walk on.


Edited by metalbabe - January/02/2012 at 5:58am

I get stared at a lot. It happens. Before I was a piercer I worked in a restaurant as a manager for four years. I wasn't as modified as I am now, but I still had a lot of tattoos, a few piercings, and large stretched ears. That restaurant didn't care too much about appearance, but I have had issues with other jobs because of appearance. I was fired from Panera Bread because I continued my ear stretching passed the size I was when I started there (I had to cover my ears with my hair...not too easy at nearly 1"). They made me cover my arm tattoos which I eventually stopped covering. The sad part is I worked there for a year and they hired me with stretched ears and some visible tattoos. Later on, I couldn't get a job at McDonalds because my hands were tattooed. I've only had my hands and neck tattooed since I've been a piercer, and though I don't struggle with finding a job, I still don't always fit in in the workplace. My boss doesn't like face tattoos and even says he would never hire someone with facial tattoos, and though I had my chin tattooed after I started in this shop (I already had some very minor facial tattooing when I started), I know he still doesn't like it. It's not like having my chin tattooed interferes with my work ethic, but he feels that too many mods scare people. This, however, doesn't stop me from continuing my journey! I've learned that it's more important to be yourself, and even though you may have to work a little harder to succeed or to get others to accept you, it's totally worth it!