Conch stretching, not for the faint-hearted

One of the reservations I originally had about getting pierced (and the subsequent inclination to stretch even the most innapropriate piercings. No, not that one) was that it might, in some way, decrease my chances of getting a job. I have since realised that the decent companies hire on enthusiasm, talent and personality (not necessarily in that order) and not personal appearance. Obviously if you’ve got poor personal hygiene then it’s going to affect you wherever you go, but if you choose to dye/dread your hair or get piercings or tattoos, does that really say anything about you as a professional?

Since I dreaded my hair and got pierced, I’ve worked for a FTSE Top 100 company, an HR and Payroll software provider and now a fast-growing creative agency. None of these companies even mentioned my piercings or dreads, and there were people at the former two who were obsessed with how you dread hair and how you stretch piercings. Why is it, then, that when I speak to people about work the first thing the majority ask is if I find it difficult to get work looking the way I look? If I were more self-conscious, this might have started to get to me but I always assume they’re talking about the hair and ears. I guess we’re in pretty radically changing times right now with regard to body mods. I see so many people around with pretty large stretches (I would say that my lobe is above average, but I’ve seen some people in the street with at least 35mm) and this is indicative to me of a wider acceptance of body modifications and a general ability to separate an individual’s personality and the trinkets with which they choose to adorn themselves (thanks, Howard).

For me, what it comes down to is that I have enough confidence in my skills and professionalism for my appearance to remain irrelevant. This coupled with the fact that I honestly wouldn’t want to be part of a company who were that fixated on the personal appearance of their employees. After all, they would be benefitting from having me on the payroll, and if they can’t see that then that’s their problem. This piece of rhetoric is something that’s very important to me. A lot of my friends say that their only reservation about getting stretches is that they think it would have a negative effect on their ability to get work in anything other than a tattoo parlour, but I strongly believe that that’s not the case anymore. I also believe that life is too short to not do something as personally gratifying and empowering as self-modification just because some buttoned-down, traditionalist HR type can’t see past whatever stereotype they associate with a pierced individual.

All that aside, don’t even stretch your conch. I really mean this. It looks amazing, and it’s easily tied for first place with my lobe, but it isn’t worth the pain, lost sleep and probably permanent scarring that I seem to have been blessed with with mine. What looks like a relatively healthy stretch on the surface:

Can sometimes be causing its owner a lot more discomfort and, in some cases, mental anguish (I’m deeply dreading the inevitability of a dermal punch!) if you delve deeper: