Office Edge

Hey hey. So I thought I'd write about tattoos and piercings and colored hair and that sort of thing. How is a professional office look defined? Who regulates it? Is it generational? Or will these limitations change as the Millennial Generation transitions from an entry level worker to CEO?

Speaking for myself, I really like tattoos. I think they can be a really cool expression of art and a person's personality and soul. I got my first tattoo 4 months ago, and I love it! It's my middle name, Emem, which means peace, with what I like to think is a very artistic peace sign at the end of it. It's only about 2 inches long. I got it in a place where if I want you to see it, you will, and if I don't, you won't. I did this for a few reasons. My parents raised me to be conservative in some regards. They always warn me about making things harder for myself than they have to be. They are hesitant about me doing anything to give anyone any room to discredit me for any reason, in any scenario, especially a professional one. My mom's a little better about it than my dad. My dad is the Nigerian parent, so we just have a lot of cultural differences.

This is the best picture I can find where you can kind of see my tattoo. Right along my right shoulder. 

But anyway, even though I felt pretty secure about the appropriateness and acceptability of my tattoo by my own and other people's potential standards, when I went on an interview last week, I found myself worrying about whether or not my interviewer would dislike me because of it. On retrospect, it was a pretty silly worry because I specifically got my tattoo in a location where it wouldn't be noticeable in an office setting, wearing office attire (you know, thick straps, sweaters, that stuff).

Even though I think we are slowly progressing every day as a society to be one that is accepting of the differences of others, there is still a distinct stigma associated with tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications. And I confess that I have been guilty of casting judgement in these areas. I grew up thinking that doctors, lawyers, and business executives had a very "straight edge" look. It's not considered professional to have blue hair. If you ask anyone why not, you'd get a better answer than "just because." Eccentric, or I daresay just different, is seldom accepted as "professional".

An example of a professional that's all tatted up. I just google imaged "tattooed doctor" haha, so I don't know if it's real, but the thought behind it is inspiring! 

I also have 6 ear piercings, but I generally think that's pretty casual. I had no reservations wearing all of them when I worked at various jobs in college. These were technically professional jobs (at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital), but for some reason I felt a little more lax there because I was still a college student I guess. But now, I definitely want people to see me as a real adult, and don't want to give them a reason not to. Perhaps I have my parents' voices in the back of my head. So at an interview I only wear one lobe piercing on each side, just in case my interviewer is super old school and conservative. I guess that's the cautious way to go about it. But I do still wear cool shoes though - can't have anyone thinking I'm vanilla.

And lastly, we have hair. I've experimented a little bit with dyeing my hair, but I'm definitely still a n00b. I dyed my hair the first time right before my senior year of college. I got some reddish brown highlighted streaks in my hair.

This is the picture where you can see the color the best, with my face doing that. I know, I know.

Since then, I've dyed it yet again but now it's just a dark brown (it's a lot harder to dye dreads, I've learned). So nothing too crazy over here. But what if I died my hair pink? Would I be able to get a professional job that does not necessarily cater to creativity and self expression? If not, is it just because my hair isn't "normal"? That seems pretty weird to me when I really think about it. But at the same time, if I walked into a building and the receptionist had bright purple hair, I'd wonder about how lax that business was - I guess it's an ingrained part of the way we've been socialized.

All in all, everyone should feel comfortable expressing themselves, as long as they aren't hurting anyone in the process. So it's up to you to decide if how far you're willing to go against the grain within a professional environment in order to fully embrace your own creativity. It's also up to you to decide how willing you are to tone yourself down in order to fit the mold of whichever established professional environment you want to be a part of.