The Story of my Nose Ring and other defunct piercings

me,circa 2011.

After looking at old photos of myself, I felt inspired to write this post.

In August of 2013, I took out my nose piercing.
In doing so at the time, I oddly felt like I lost a piece of myself after having it for years.

So here goes the story of my piercings (just for fun):

In college, I got body piercings because I found them to be fun. I felt somewhat like a rebel without a cause every time I got a new one. I contemplated getting many more than I actually ended up getting.

First, I had my belly button pierced just because... it was pretty much something that every college girl did at the time. I even had a custom piercing made with a turquoise colored crystal stone and an anchor charm. I lost interest in the thought of a trendy piercing so it maybe was only in a year or so.

My second piercing, was a stud underneath my lips on the left side.
I remember feeling super cool after getting it, I constantly tried to not push on it with my tongue but I wasn't very successful. This piercing actually only lasted on my face for three weeks because it actually fell out during a very large and rowdy college football game during halftime. I still have a very small scar (you can't even notice it).

My sophomore year, I decided to get my nose pierced. I was super excited. I ended up getting a silver ball stud one friday night when piercings were on sale. It seemed like I constantly snagged it on towels after the shower or while sleeping. While wandering around the living room in our apartment, I somehow knocked it out onto the carpet and that was the end of that... until I eventually had it redone.
...when I originally was at the tattoo/piercing shop to get it done, there was another customer who wanted to watch me get it done so he could "feel the pain." He then got both of his nipples pierced at the same time. ouch.

Next, I ended up getting my eyebrow pierced with my then best friend.



The eyebrow piercing lasted a couple of years. In that time, I had my nose re-pierced.

I had my nose pierced through half of college + all three years of grad school + a good year after school.

The whole time I had my nose pierced and with a nose ring, I did not have a hard time finding employment or being regarded as professional until...

In June (or July of 2013), I had an interview from hell where the woman described the company as being "conservative" and constantly bashed the fact that I had a nose ring even though early on in the interview I stated I would have no problem taking it out since I would be in fact "representing their brand." What's ridiculous is I was dressed professionally (it was actually a second interview with this company) and here, she was wearing skin tight white jeans, a plaid shirt that was buttoned down revealing her cleavage and her eyebrows were drawn on poorly.

Some people need to review what dressing conservative is, especially in a business atmosphere. Here I had worked both in the educational field and in retail and they didn't have a problem with my piercing because I was good at my jobs.

So in August, I took out my beloved Nose Ring. The more I thought about it, I did it for these reasons:
...Because I realized it was just an accessory.
...Because I realized I shouldn't let people judge me over a small piercing.
...Because my career couldn't be defined over a piece of jewelry.

I no longer have any "body piercings," only my ears and a cartilage piercing in the top of my left ear.

Do you have any piercings?
Have you ever judged someone because of a piercing?