I'm not surprised at all. I think people who do anything like this to their body are up for public scrutiny whether they wanted it or not.
Personally, I could give a rats ass if a person wants to stretch their lobes past the point of recognition - they aren't my ears. As far as employment goes, it's human nature to pass judgement or assume (most times WRONGLY) that someone is "stupid" or a "drug addict" because of their appearance - but people do it. Body mods is no indication of a persons ability or inability to do a job. Unfortunately, they most times will not even be given the chance. That is a consequence people know about when they choose to do something like that.
Much like when someone sees an obese person. Have people describe them and the first thing most people say is "lazy". It's a judgement and people make them all the time.
I would never do body mods like the ear thing.. but I do have a few tattoos. Mine are not on my face or somewhere that is "out in someone's face" yet people will assume I'm some scourge, dumbass or trashy slut solely based on the fact that I have them and MOST times, they have no idea where they are because by all account and dressed in my office attire, nobody knows. /shrug
If they are that narrow minded, then I don't want them to get to know me to begin with. Not my loss.
One question: do you have a tramp-stamp? :mrgreen:
Okay okay, I'll be serious. I
try not to judge people by what they look like, because I don't like it when people do it to me either. It can be hard, though, when you're talking about extremes of body modification.
Still, as you say: when you do things like this, especially if you go for the big-gauges-and-many-many-
obvious-tatts-and-piercings look, you're making an
obvious display of whatever message or look you're intending to convey, to everyone who sees you.
Most people who don't go in for such things tend to assume it is a middle finger raised defiantly at "conventional society" and respond accordingly. What a shock that the reactions are mostly negative, eh? /irony
What prompts a desire for such an extreme look?
In many cases, especially if we're talking about younger people, it is definitely a desire to "stand out" and attract attention. Granted that in, say L.A. in 2010 you have to look
very different to attract that much attention... still I think it is often a manifestation of insecurities or attention-whore neediness.
After all, large numbers of people these days have piercings and obvious tatts. If someone wants to generate that "holy crap! Did you see that guy??" reaction that some folks crave, you have to go to extremes... face tatts, big earlobe gauges, head spikes, split tongues, or some combo thereof. Hail there's probably clubs when even THOSE mods don't draw more than a few glances. What's the next extreme? I hate to find out.
Can you say "the Reaver look", Firefly fans? :mrgreen:
Some people say they do it because they like the "style" or the "look". I still have to wonder what that means. What is it you want to look like? What message are you trying to send?
The guy that I mentioned, the ass't manager at a restaurant... If I had to guess, his big-gauges and multiply-pierced, covered-in-tatts look are intended to convey an obvious warning of his antisocial nature. His behavior, IMO, backs up that analysis.
To be honest, if you deliberately go out of your way to look like a freak of nature, don't be shocked when people treat you accordingly and assume you're some sort of anti-social or anti-everything type.
I'm
not saying that everyone who has gauges is like that... but anything taken to extremes tends to put most people off.