Woes of the Modified

[BaristaGirl]

Language warning. Consider this my letter to the asshat I sat shortly before leaving work last night.

Look, asshat. You asked me about my bandaid. The words you actually used were "Did somebody stab you in the face?" I answered your question honestly and politely, even trying to play along with your lame joke I have heard eight times a day for the past seven months. I told you the truth. I have a piercing, a microdermal, underneath my right eye, up on my cheekbone towards my ear.

Do NOT try to act like I'm offending your 'delicate sensibilities' when I describe it to you, especially when the first words out of your mouth are some kind of question about it. I'm gonna answer, because it doesn't occur to me immediately that you're one of THOSE asshats. (Which you, by the way, were.) Additionally, I will stop talking about it if you tell me to. Don't mumble for me to, assume I understood the garble from under your breath, then throw a hissy when I didn't hear you. I'll stop and back off if you tell me to like a -real- adult. Nice job, great parenting, teaching your kids to ask questions and bitch and piss and moan when they don't like the answers.

I didn't get pierced specifically to offend or to please you personally. I did this completely for myself. I HAPPEN TO LOVE IT. I'm not thrilled about the bandaid but yeah, it was rude of you to ask about it in the first place. Do NOT insinuate that I have recently been in some kind of back alley knife fight and then be innocent and delicate when the real truth of the nature of the situation comes out. It's a fucking sparkle. DEAL. Don't like it? DON'T GET ONE AND LET THE REST OF US MOVE ON WITH OUR LIVES.

[Soulstealer]

At least you've never had to explain to people that the gauze on your chin was because you fell when you tripped on your shoe laces.

Yes, I'm a sad sad person. Luckily, I didn't need stiches.

[bean]

Ah yes, body modifications. In my store they allow up to 5 piercings in each ear (no mention of enlarged piercings) and 1 in the nose. In reality, pretty much anything goes. A lot of people have lip rings, labrets, snake bites, eyebrow rings, etc. They don't have any real rules about tattoos except that they can't be on your face or hands - needless to say, a large portion of our employees are inked, myself included (though my single tat is on my shoulder).

I myself have 1 hole in each ear - 00 gauge. I can easily fit a Sharpie marker through them. I also have an eyebrow piercing. In fact, if I forget my plugs or if I get bored, I'll pop a marker into my earlobe. My line when someone asks me about it - "Hey, at least I won't lose it this way!" Only one other employee in the store has significantly stretched earlobes though (he's at 000). A couple have 4 or 2 gauge.

Until I moved to overnights, at least a couple of times a month.. "GASP! YOU HAVE HOLES IN YOUR EARS!", almost always from a 40s-50s female. My response was always "You do too!". For some reason they would get offended at my pointing out the obvious. I did get tired of the "why did you do that to yourself" crap. I did it because I like having holes in my ears, not because I must be satanic (I like heavy metal, but no, not satanic). One lady actually asked if I was in a band and said she'd only seen piercings like that on "rock stars". (I own a guitar, but can barely play it, thanks)

I did have a fun conversation with an off duty cop who works security for us one night though. He asked if I could fit a .45 bullet through my earlobes, I told him I'd never tried. So he pulled a round out of his pistol and handed it to me. It didn't fit, so he handed me a smaller round from another clip he had on him (I think it was a .38? I really don't remember). It did fit. He jokingly said I should wear bullets in my ears - I informed him that there's a couple of companies that actually do make plugs that look like bullets (except out of surgical steel instead of brass and lead). One of these days I'm going to order some..

edit: photo enclosed. I chopped my hair off a week ago, and had been working from midnight until 9am (I'd just walked out of the store when this was taken.. daystar BAD). I was squinting because of the sun, I was actually in a good mood.

[queenbb]

At least you've never had to explain to people that the gauze on your chin was because you fell when you tripped on your shoe laces.

Yes, I'm a sad sad person. Luckily, I didn't need stiches.

that is at least easier to explain a circular hickey on your forehead.

yes this happend, and not the way you might think.

my sister was in a sad mood so i wanted to cheer her up, she had this suction cup frog (it was stained glass looking and hang down from the suction cup it was maybe about 4-5 in long)

i stuck it on my head and walked around the corner she immediately started laughing at me and said that i would get a hickey, it fell off (after maybe 3 or 4 seconds while she said i would get the hickey) cause i wrinkled my forehead a little in disbelief as she started to laugh even harder about the whole thing because there was a little hickey there about 2 in round.

it was only on for a few seconds, no it was not from the frog being there, it stayed for about a week or so.

my co workers would laugh at me (as well as the customers) even though i had tried to cover it up (with cover up and a regular dowsing of viseine)

[Primer]

that is at least easier to explain a circular hickey on your forehead.
<lots of snippage>
yes this happend, and not the way you might think.

my sister had this suction cup frog

i stuck it on my head she immediately started laughing at me and said that i would get a hickey, it <the hickey> stayed for about a week or so.

my co workers would laugh at me (as well as the customers) even though i had tried to cover it up (with cover up and a regular dowsing of viseine)

My ex bf stuck a suction cup to his forehead one evening. Imagine the razzing he got when he went back to work....he was a Sergeant in the Army!

[queenbb]

probably worse or about the same as i did at the time (i was a mechanic at a bowling alley and worked with all men)

[BookstoreEscapee]

Look, asshat. You asked me about my bandaid. The words you actually used were "Did somebody stab you in the face?"

Next time, just say Yes and start crying. I still think the bandaid thing is a ridiculous overreaction on the part of your superiors.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

I myself have 1 hole in each ear - 00 gauge. I can easily fit a Sharpie marker through them... In fact, if I forget my plugs or if I get bored, I'll pop a marker into my earlobe. My line when someone asks me about it - "Hey, at least I won't lose it this way!"

I usually don't comment on people's body mods (mainly because I really don't care about them), but if I saw that, I would most definitely say something along the lines of "Dude, that's an awful lot of trouble to go to just to have a place to put a marker."

I just use a pocket, myself.

[digilight]

Would it be a horrible thing to just tell them that the bandaid is covering up the area where you had the byopsy performed on the cancer. Make 'em really feel like a complete fuck.

[rerant]

I myself have 1 hole in each ear - 00 gauge. I can easily fit a Sharpie marker through them. I also have an eyebrow piercing. In fact, if I forget my plugs or if I get bored, I'll pop a marker into my earlobe. My line when someone asks me about it - "Hey, at least I won't lose it this way!" Only one other employee in the store has significantly stretched earlobes though (he's at 000). A couple have 4 or 2 gauge.

I have 00 gauge tunnels in as well (had to downsize from 18mm but that's a whole other story) and that even frightens me. Though I'm thinking more in the way of how unsanitary that is. Too much bacteria can live on those Sharpies. Please don't do that.

But on topic of the thread, yesterday I had a man make me so angry I could feel my face getting red.
He was one of those sickly sweet, yet so obviously condescending people.
His daughter must have whispered something to him about my snakebites and he kept saying, "Ask her, ask her."
The daughter was shy and didn't want to so he asked me himself.

SC: My daughter wants to know why you have those holes in your lip.

I spouted off some auto-pilot response and he walked over to start bagging his items. Then he said to his daughter, "See honey, that's how some people who are confused "express" themselves."
I use parentheses because he emphasised the word in a way that made me want to turn around and punch him in the neck.

*(&^%&^$^%# I'm not going to go into a rant about his comment because it would be pointless, but my GOODNESS, man, you're setting a horrible example for your daughter in terms of tolerance. Not to mention you just made yourself look like an ignorant douchebag.

I started a thread about this a while back and people often said that it should be expected that we who have mods get asked questions, but that doesn't mean we have to like it when people are always questioning our reasoning behind our choices.

Mind your damn business, I say.

[edible_hat]

I know this isn't at all representative of all or even most people who get piercings, but I knew a guy who got an eyebrow piercing "to piss off the conservative m****f*****ers". He wore it to interviews then complained about how he couldn't get a job... newsflash, those "conservative m*****f*****ers" are the ones that make the hiring decisions! Actually he got offered one job on condition that he cover the piercing while on duty, and he actually told the hiring manager to "go f*** yourself", then whined about them retracting the offer.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, way I see it is this: People are going to be curious about your mods and ask questions. We all know it attracts attention. You all know that when you get it done.

That does not excuse the curious from being polite, however. Unfortunately, a lot of idiots out there think that it does, and that's just not cool. But people simply asking in a polite manner is something that the body mod crowd ought to get used to. If the curious people asking questions are rude, well, they get whatever you see fit to give them, and rightly so.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that's how it is. Don't get offended when people express curiousity about your choice of expressing yourselves.

Heck, while it's not quite so unusual, I get asked or commented on at LEAST once a day if I go out about my hair, or my eyewear style(although since I see way more tats, mods, and piercings than I do witchlocks and Windsor spectacles, so maybe I AM more unusual ). Most people are not rude about it. But I can opt to not go about with weird hair or Ghandi glasses, if the attention bothered me.

[Seshat]

I started a thread about this a while back and people often said that it should be expected that we who have mods get asked questions, but that doesn't mean we have to like it when people are always questioning our reasoning behind our choices.

There's asking, and there's disguised insulting. I'm of the opinion that asking (politely) should be encouraged, when the askee has time. But disguised insults should be treated with the rudeness they deserve.

Of course, I'm not modified. (I'd love to, but I heal badly, so no piercings or cuttings, and I'm sensitive to too many things to risk a tat.)
But I get asked about the wheelchair, and my blind friend about her service dog. I guess I just like to encourage people to accept all forms of diversity.

[digilight]

Question to you folks with tats and other mods. Is it offensive or does it bother you in any way for a stranger to casually say "Sweet tat", or "Nice (Insert type of piercing)" how bad did that one hurt.

Now remember these aren't said with any malace or anything. But I do know that I get sick of having people comment on how tall I am, or ask me how tall. Its usually not meant or said in a rude manner, but at the same time it gets old.

I'm asking the above for myself, cause I will comment on a real well done tat. All though I'm afraid to complement one of the process servers for the company I use. He is heavily tatted up including a full leg piece and a full sleeve that goes up his neck. This guy is nice as hell, but he is built like a brick shit house and I'm afraid that if I move wrong he might snap me in half

[Imogene]

that is at least easier to explain a circular hickey on your forehead.

One weekend some years ago, I was over at a girlfriend's house, helping her family paint her sister's room... (now that I think about it, I did a lot of stuff for her sister, for some reason) Afterwards, myself, girlfriend, and girlfriend's sister were washing the paint rollers out under the faucet outside, and suddenly, girlfriend's sister throws her paint roller at me. Hits me smack dab in the center of my forehead. I dropped the roller I was cleaning, and grab my head, as it hurt like a bitch. Went inside, checked a mirror... I had a crescent moon inscribed on my forehead, that was just barely bleeding, luckily. Over the next few months, I had a crescent scab.