But isn’t “good” subjective? I think that some piercings do look good on some people (as with hairstyles, certain applications of makeup, and color choices for clothing, different people look ‘good’ in different things). I wouldn’t choose piercings or tattoos for myself – I don’t even have my ears pierced – but that’s because I’m too squeamish for piercings, and I value being able to alter my appearance to fit in with vastly different social circles too much to get a tattoo. But for someone else, if it’s what they want, why shouldn’t they? There are all kinds of beauty, most of them artificial to some degree or another in this day and age. I know I keep my figure by working out on exercise devices that don’t go anywhere, tweeze my eyebrows, keep my skin nice with special soaps and creams, and enhance my hair color with highlights and dye. I do affect a more “natural” look, but that’s my choice, and if it were out of style, I would expect it to be respected by my employer, anyway.
If employers are to change or fire people whose appearances might offend a few customers, where are they to draw the line? Lots of customers don’t like looking at fat women, so should employers tell their female employees to lose weight or be fired? And several customers at the place where my boyfriend works as a receptionist have snarkily demanded that they “get a girl” (ie, have a woman receptionist instead of a man) – should they do that?
Finally, a last thought for you about what POSSIBLE reason anyone could have for large numbers of tattoos or piercings besides “getting attention”. I once read an article that discussed a phenomenon wherein people who were abused or molested or raped wound up tattooing and piercing their bodies as a means of “reclaiming” them. At the time, I thought the article was stupid, and mentioned it laughingly to a (heavily tattooed) friend. She told me that it was most definately true for her – what I didn’t know about her was that she had been molested when she was a child, and the tattoos for her were a way of taking her skin back from that abuse.
It may not be why EVERY person gets a tattoo or piercing, but it’s the reason for some, and something to think on before judging, next time.
Of course, as you said, you’re free to take your money elsewhere. Clearly, the fact that the shops in question haven’t gone out of business indicate that enough other people don’t care or are drawn to places that allow such freedom of expression that it’s not doing anyone any harm for you to do so.
