The feeling of sameness in the workplace can put a damper on your identity a little. In the military, for example, there are stories of people needing to cover their neck and arm tattoos. Personally, I went to a boarding school that had students conceal tattoos. When a woman in California scored a new job, she shared that she had to remove her piercing. Now the internet is divided: Should she sacrifice her self-expression and keep the piercing, but possibly lose the job?
TikTok user Teriyakimegan—Megan—posted a video captioned, “Goodbye nose piercings,” and explains she’s starting a job in a week. In the meantime, she read the employee handbook. She found it said, “No facial piercings”, and now has to remove her nose piercing. Megan explains this is a big deal because she hasn’t “seen her naked nose in six years.” As she removes the piercings she looks pitifully sad but says, “Alas, adulthood.” She tells the camera she feels like something is missing without them in her nose.
It’s obvious Megan was having a little fun, and her sadness probably didn’t last for long. After all, she’d have a great job waiting for her on the other side. However, the comments section showed people are really serious about their piercings and self-expression. Some people even argued they could never take their piercings out for a job.
“No piercings? NO JOB DESERVES ME THAT MUCH,” one person argued. Personally, I don’t blame someone for choosing job stability over a bit of metal, especially in President Trump’s economy. One commenter does make a good point, though. She says, “I don’t understand how a piercing is still considered unprofessional. How does it affect anything??” And I agree wholeheartedly.
Megan soon followed up with a second video where she responds to a commenter who claimed, “No job is worth it!!!” She explains she was, indeed, sad to lose the piercings. However, she believes she made the right decision and people were taking it a tad too seriously.“Yall it is not that deep she’s okay,” said another.
She asks her audience, “First of all, have you guys seen the state of the current job market?” She goes on to say, “I was extremely lucky to have gotten a job offer in my profession, in my field, and I would have done a lot more than take out my nostril piercings.” That settles that. Here’s to hoping Megan excels at her job, piercing or no piercing!
