I Don't Always Understand Self Expression

I have a tattoo.  It is in a location on my person where I can legally display it in public but I can easily cover it up as well.  Nobody has to know!

When I got my tattoo pretty much no one I knew had one.  It was great.  I was an individual and I was expressing myself.  NOW EVERYONE HAS ONE!!!!  Now I feel less original and more band-wagony.

Most people now seem to be getting tattoos everywhere on their body and some even on their face.  Those tattoos along with piercings seem to be a little overwhelming (and equally career limiting) at times.

"I'm sorry, but you may never make it any further than President of the USA.  In the meantime, please take back these fries and this Big Mac and give me money back.  I seem to not be so much hungry anymore."

Now, I'll be honest, I'm open to most things with a live and let live kind of outlook on life, but I'll be even honester.  Just because I am okay with you doing something for yourself and expressing yourself in most non-physical-harm-to-others type ways, it doesn't mean I like these forms of expression.  The person pictured above may be a very nice and intelligent person.  I would gladly be their friend if we shared some common interests, but I'm not going to have sex with that person under any circumstance!  This is what I would consider to be an At-Arms-Length kind of friend!

Again, if this makes you feel better about yourself, then, go for it.  But, that look is not at all for me.

So, let me scale it back a bit...  I'm a complete traditionalist when it comes to piercings.  I am fine with ear piercings and multiple ear piercings.  After that, my experience is pretty limited.  I've not had anyone in my life who had "extra piercings."

There are many piercings one can get that, like my tattoo, they can easily hide.  Again, Live and Let Live, but, if there's a chance we're going to be intimate, please give me a heads up and a chance to see if I can get familiar/ comfortable with these add-ons.  I do not want that kind of surprise and I may need multiple opportunities to get used to you having such accessories.  I may never get used to them, but chances are, after multiple opportunities, I'm going to like you a lot more than I don't like the lightning rod you've permanently thrust through some collection of nerves on your body!

Now, Pierced Nostrils.... I don't get it.  I understand you wish to express something, but what?  I'm so old fashioned and pathetic (and my vision may be going with age) that I often find myself trying to let people know that they have a big 'ol crusty on their nose.  Then they get all mad at me. 

WHAT DOES THIS EXPRESS?  I SERIOUSLY DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!

Now, again, just because you have a pierced nostril and I don't get it, it doesn't mean I think you are foolish, and it doesn't mean I don't like you and it doesn't mean I can't befriend you.  It just isn't for me.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE A COLD AND YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR NOSE RING/STUD THINGS IN????   Ewwwwwww.....

So, like my tattoo (which I don't regret but am not as thrilled to have as I once was) we sometimes do things in our youth that we might later regret:

Some less physically permanent than others.

I was sitting in Church this past weekend when a lady with a runny nose stood up in the front and made the long walk down the center aisle to the back of the chapel.  Obviously she had made the moral decision that the anxiety one feels walking down the center aisle during the long walk as the Priest speaks outweighed the disturbance she was causing by blowing her nose.  The congregation appreciated her courage.

I was in the back and had the opportunity to watch her for the entire walk; it was as if she was in slow motion.  She was an older woman dressed in the elegant yet casual clothing a woman (maybe in her sixties) might wear to Church on a hot Sunday in the southeast.  She walked with confidence and carried herself gracefully.  She was attractive and I may have had some inappropriate thoughts about how she might've been in her earlier years.  Her skin was tanned; not quite to the leathery extreme but enough so that it may have added to her assumed age.  I can only imagine how long the walk was for her; an eternity I imagine.

As she walked, I had the opportunity to notice that some tissue was stuck to her nose.  It was stuck to the side of her nose.  IT WAS STUCK ON HER DIAMOND NOSE STUD!!!  Everyone had to see it.  Everyone had to wonder?  Perhaps this was akin to someone having toilet paper stuck to their shoe?  Perhaps it was some form of self-expression?

And so.... I felt I needed to break my nearly year long silence to share this flaw in my personality....
 
I don't always understand self expression.