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Piercings and work

oddoneout

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
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What piercings are allowed/not allowed at your workplace? Do you think the "rules" regarding them are appropriate? Any personal stories you'd like to share?
 
All piercings are allowed where I work. I work for an ad agency and a lot of the creative directors have facial piercings.
 
When I was younger (18) I worked in retail. They did not have a policy on piercings until I got my labret pierced- twice. Most of the time people wouldn't really notice as it wasn't obnoxious or in your face. When I switched stores (same company new location) I wanted to hide them due to the.... type of people that came in the store (ok, b!tchy jerks). At that time I started stretching my ears, and there was not a damn thing they could say about that. I always "FELT" tension on it though. "Oh you went bigger.....Why?" from my manager.. when I got my septum done, I always wore a retainer and had it flipped up so no one could see :)

I even had customers say rude things to me, some would try to touch my piercings... or ask me to pull out my lip so they could see the inside. Or, ask "So... where else do you have piercings?"

Now... I'm almost 27 and I think people should still do what they want, but whether you like it or not, you DO NOT get taken as seriously with piercings/ tattoos. I hhhhaaate it.
 
NewEnglandLady said:
All piercings are allowed where I work. I work for an ad agency and a lot of the creative directors have facial piercings.

I want to work where you work :cheeky: Piercings and tattoos are not allowed, however, nobody has made a big deal out of two small tattoo's I have on the inside of my arms. It's for my dad and I - A bass clef with a small flower on my R (dad) and a treble clef with a small flower on my L (for me)
 
I have a nose ring that I wear to work; it hasn't received any attention so far, except maybe one person saying that it looked good on me and fit my face. I would love to get my bottom lip pierced, and then match the piercing to my nose. My convo with mom on the topic went like this:

Indy: Mom, I want to get my lip pierced.
Indy's Mom: Really? Me too! I've always wanted that.
Indy: Really?! That's so cool!! I didn't think you'd be ok with that. :appl:
Indy's Mom: *serious face* I'm not. If you get one, I WILL pull it out of your face.
Indy: :eek:
Indy's Mom: :))

(If it wasn't apparent, she was being sarcastic when she said she wanted one too. It wasn't apparent to me at the time, though you would have thought that I would know better thank to think my mom wants a lip piercing too.)
 
There are no rules against piercings or tattoos where I work. I just have my nose pierced (small SS stud) but my coworker has a nose ring and a lot of visible tattoos. I work in academic research, BTW. Many of the departments at my university allow piercings and tattoos. I think it just depends on the industry you're in. And I would have no problem taking my nose ring out for work if I got a job in a more conservative work place.
 
i have several piercing but not all can be hiden with clothing, my nose, cheek, lip and eyebrow are all pierced. I work in a plastics shop ao the y are allowed. I know most places alow facial piercings as long as they are not huge or gawdy looking
 
As a teacher, we really aren't supposed to have facial piercings... I used to have my nose pierced (as well as just about everything else you can't see) but I took it out before I got married and got a job. One girl at work has her nose pierced and keeps a flesh colored stud in it. Tattoos are not really supposed to be visible, but that is sort of an unwritten rule. I have 2 large tattoos that really can't be covered up (one on my foot and one around my ankle), but no one has really given me trouble about them.
 
I'm a teacher also (elementary), and although I don't even know if there's anything written about it in my school's handbook, I'd imagine it's fairly conservative profession.
 
In university, I had a lip ring an tongue stud. I ended up taking them both out when I started graduate scool in clinical psychology because I worried that they would not be appropriate. In the end I could have kept them if I wanted because I switched fields. Now that I am a prof, I think I can wear anything I like! It is pretty free. But there are no professors with unusual piercings in my faculty, and I have not seen any on campus either. Dirty baggy pants, sweater vests, and hawaiin shirts, yes, piercings, no.
 
I teach community college. We don't have any restrictions against piercings, as far as I know.

I had a tongue ring for the first couple years that I taught high school. Nobody seemed to mind.
 
I've had mixed experiences with piercings & tattoos, from "totally okay" to "NO WAY" ... but these were experiences at jobs and not in any actual career field.

At some point I had all piercings removed (eyebrow, lip, nose, ears). I was headed into law school and knew there was NO way in Hades I would be able to keep my facial piercings in place. There was a girl in my class who had a single eyebrow ring, and even I looked at her as if she was nutso :nono:

I really loved my piercings and only removed them because I figured I would need to in order to establish my professional "self." I wish that wasn't the case.
 
Dreamer_D said:
In university, I had a lip ring an tongue stud. I ended up taking them both out when I started graduate scool in clinical psychology because I worried that they would not be appropriate. In the end I could have kept them if I wanted because I switched fields. Now that I am a prof, I think I can wear anything I like! It is pretty free. But there are no professors with unusual piercings in my faculty, and I have not seen any on campus either. Dirty baggy pants, sweater vests, and hawaiin shirts, yes, piercings, no.

Haha... this conjured up some great images/memories from my undergrad days & describes the majority of my male professors from the history/political science/geography department.
 
Nobody has ever had a problem with my tattoos, either. They're on my right foot, and they're easily visible when I wear ballet flats, and I definitely don't hide them.
 
I work at a large financial firm and we are professional dress 90% of the time. I have a nose stud that I had when I was hired. Most people don't even notice but no one has ever said anything. I don't see a whole lot of visible tattoos around here though. And, even though there's not necessarily any rules against these things, you never see anyone in upper management with either.
 
I work at an investment fund. No one here has more than 2 ear piercings or visible tattoos.

I checked the employee handbook just for kicks and it doesn't say anything about tattoos or piercings, but that "employees are expected to wear work-appropriate business casual attire at all times".

It's a pretty conservative atmosphere and quite competitive, so I think anyone who has multiple piercings or tattoos would probably choose to cover or remove them, or would be asked to by a manager.
 
As far as I know, my workplace doesn't have a restriction on piercings or visible tatoos. For the summer we have a casual dress code, so everyone is in short sleeves and you can see a lot of people's tatoos. A few of the women have nose piercings but you hardly ever notice.

I had a nose stud for a few months when I lived in Europe. I took it out before I came home because I knew my mother would flip out. She didn't even find out about it until she saw some pictures of me from when I had it. I've always regretted taking it out since it did look good. I was talking to my first boss when day and mentioned it and asked if she still would have hired me if I came to my job interview with that kind of piercing. She said she probaly would have, she would have thought longer about it, but in the end she couldn't have not offered me a job because of it since her sister also has one.

I do feel that people with facial piercings and really visible tatoos aren't taken as seriously in a corporate environment. Which stinks.
 
We don't have a policy about it, tho I'd noticed the office manager looking at my feet/ankle tattoos a few times this summer since I've been wearing capri's and thongs. (as we all do every summer, and I've worked there 6 years) Now we have a dress code-no open toed shoes, and no capri's. (tho, I've also been told we can wear dressy capri's)
 
Maybe I'm not allowed to have my rook piercing, but...no one has said anything. I'm sure they've all seen it.
 
I work in a large Dental practice and there are no rules about piercings. The younger girls all have about 8 in each ear. The only thing that is a no no is a tongue piercing for obvious reasons. Two girls have studs in their noses.
 
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