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Body mod­i­fi­ca­tion is a per­ma­nent or semi-​permanent alter­ation of the body for non-​medical reasons—think spir­i­tual, soci­etal, BDSM play, aes­thetic or prac­ti­cal. Body mod­i­fi­ca­tion has been in prac­tice for at least two thou­sand plus years—Ötzi the Iceman was found with a fairly large earlobe pierc­ing (1–000 gauge; 7–11mm) and 57 carbon tattoos.

Yes­ter­day I had another pierc­ing done—a ver­ti­cal eyebrow pierc­ing sitting right beside my first on my left eyebrow. I wanted to get another pierc­ing before I leave for Germany this Sunday. Being my second eyebrow pierc­ing I knew what I had coming and all in all it was a fairly relax­ing pro­ce­dure, as far as pierc­ings go. My latest metal­lic addi­tion had me reflect over the topic of body mod­i­fi­ca­tions again—the image I present to others both at work and in my per­sonal inter­ac­tions.

These issues came up twice before—when I got my first eyebrow pierc­ing and later when I had my Ashley pierc­ing (an inverted ver­ti­cal cen­tered labret). Eyebrow pierc­ings are simple to get, quick and easy to heal and gen­er­ally bruise or swell very little. My Ashley pierc­ing on the other hand left my lip swollen for several weeks, bruised and dis­coloured. Now that the primary healing is over I’m as happy as a clam; I love it. I con­sulted my employer, work col­leagues, family and close friends about both of the pierc­ings and received mixed responses. Work was open to the idea and didn’t mind what­so­ever, family didn’t mind either way and accepted it was my deci­sion whilst most of my friends were sup­port­ive and recep­tive to the idea.

Ulti­mately it comes down to an alter­ation of the body that can affect the impres­sions we leave upon others, par­tic­u­larly first impres­sions. First impres­sions are vital to good rela­tion­ships; as much as we like to think we don’t judge books by their covers our first impres­sions of someone will shape our reac­tions and future inter­ac­tions with that person.

The way we look during social inter­ac­tions is influ­enced by many factors. Two that come to mind first include the way we dress (is she wearing a casual t-shirt or smart busi­ness wear) and per­sonal hygiene (how clean are his fin­ger­nails). Body mod­i­fi­ca­tion also affects the way we look.

I’ve found little issue with the pierc­ings I have and the way they’ve altered my per­sonal image. The only notable obser­va­tions are that inter­ac­tions with those several gen­er­a­tions older than myself tend to be more con­ser­v­a­tive and prone to look less favourably upon visible body mod­i­fi­ca­tions. This is obvi­ously some­thing that I needed to weigh up—how much did I want to get the pierc­ings versus how often I would have impor­tant busi­ness meet­ings with gov­ern­ment types. I don’t want to make accu­sa­tions that public ser­vants are all con­ser­v­a­tive, but I think the example works.

On that note working in Can­berra means I’ll prob­a­bly run across a public servant just by walking out the door here in the City. I have a few col­leagues who directly work for the gov­ern­ment and them­selves have a pierc­ing or three, if not a tattoo or some­thing else and have had no issues getting or holding their job. I’m glad that thus far I’ve had no prob­lems in busi­ness inter­ac­tions and happy to rarely hear of prej­u­di­cial treat­ment relat­ing to body mod­i­fi­ca­tions, at least here in Aus­tralia.

In closing, I’ve also been told that as a “cre­ative type” we’re given a little more leeway in this entire regard and some­times we’re almost expected to be some­what more out­go­ing and expres­sive.