Ugh...gauges!

[wvjules]

I can 'handle' seeing the small ones but the bigger ones make me physically ill to my stomach. I don't know why and I can't help it. They invoke a negative physical reaction in me.

 

[Bob NC]

Let me tell you how naive I am.

At my grocery store there is a bagger who I always thought was wearing big, like half dollar size, mirrored ear rings. I always thought they looked weird, but never thought much about them.

Well, one day I'm looking at him and I realize I can see THROUGH these mirrors, lol. That is when I realized he had a big ole hole in both earlobes.

At this point I am staring at his ears, can't help it. Suddenly he kind of shocks me out of my stare by saying, "What are you looking at?"

It takes me a second to regain my composure, but I said, "Don't EVEN tell me you did that to your face and you don't expect people to look at it."

 

[KristaTX]

I'm not a big fan of the tattoo craze or even people having multiple earrings or earrings in weird places. But hey, whatever. I just think it looks tacky - personal (and perhaps professional) choice.

But the gauges? I agree - hate to look at them. To me they're too much a form of ugly mutilation that someone does on purpose.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Like them or not, think they're gross or not, what they are is unprofessional.

I love tattoos, but I'd never get one anywhere that showed, and that includes things that would show with evening dresses (like a shoulder tattoo).

If my son or daughter wanted something like that I'd sit them down and say, "Okay, imagine you're 30. I know it's hard, but imagine it. You've spent most of your 20's going through graduate school in order to get a good job. You've suffered a bit. You've lived in crappy apartments. You're married and you worry about paying your student loans. You get invited to a not really "optional" client formal function. Your boss will be there and he'll want to introduce you around as the new up-and-coming person in the business. You put on your suit or dress, your spouse puts on their respective formal wear, and you enter the ballroom. Now I ask you, are you wearing a gauge?!"

 

[Planogirl]

I usually support whatever fashion people want to get into but the permanence of these things bothers me too. I'm not in favor of doing anything that will be hard to change later.

 

[Pigeon]

If I had a discussion with my son about getting gauges and he got them against my wishes, I'd be finished paying for his school. He would be on permanent spring break.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me, different strokes for different folks.

I am not going to spend a ton of money educating him and making him a marketable person in the workforce while he is doing things voluntarily to his body that make him less marketable.

I know there are exceptions, but, the only people you see around here with these things are in careers such as grocery bagger or skateboard shop clerk.

I'm with you entirely, and my kids have known it from the get-go. Fortunately, they think these things are ugly.

My relative who has the huge gauges is a tattooist and barely has a square inch of skin that isn't covered with tats and piercings. Sweetest guy you'd ever want to meet, but as he reports himself, people see him coming and cross the street to avoid him.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I am glad that I am not the only one who gets the "willies" from them. My neighbor kid has them and I can't stand to look at them. He cashiers at Target and I am suprised they allow that. Target used to be very uptight about salesfloor team member's appearance.

I hopefully don't have to worry about my kids coming home with them. My dd16 doesn't even want a second piercing in her ear. My ds12 is so afraid of needles that I cannot imagine him enduring a guaging.

 

[SC Minnie]

There is a guy that works at a bistro near the office that had large guages. I don't know if he had to take them out for the job or took them out on is own. Anyway, the holes in his lobes are so huge his ears flop like goofy's. Its not attractive and very distracting.

DD17 knows how I feel about piercings and tats. They are OK as long as they can be covered up. She's getting a dose of it even working fast food. The place she works only allows 2 ear piercings and no cartilage piercing showing. She has to take hers out or wear her hair so that it can't be seen.

 

[Kies99]

Every time I see someone with them I want to go up and put a cloth napkin through their ear.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Every time I see someone with them I want to go up and put a cloth napkin through their ear.

I've never thought this, but now I will.

 

[IUTBAM]

I'm a 49 year old mother of two teens who considers herself pretty hip (I listen to Ke$sha and Pink, lol), and yet, I thought this post was going to be about car problem! Seriously!

I've never heard of "gauges"...I see guys with pierced ears, but this sounds like something a WHOLE lot scarier....

 

[Minnesota!]

Guess I am the odd one out...again! I think they are sexy!

 

[Adipoo]

I like them as long as they're not huge. Many of my daughter's friends are musicians or in the music industry so there's not much I find "gross" especially after knowing them as people. YMMV

 

[Southernmiss]

Body art, piercings, etc. are becoming so common among all ages, stages and walks of life.

I saw a beautiful fleur de lis on a ladies' wrist with extra flourish (the employee) at the cable company today, but I don't want one myself. It kind of surprised me to see it so visible on an employee in a public service setting like that.

I can't help wonder what it all will look like at the age of 70, 80 and 90.

I hope my kids will chose to be "different" and show their individuality by having none!

 

[HillPete]

About ten years ago, when this fad was just beginning, I asked a guy who had shower curtain rings in his ears (that's what they looked like to me) what he would do if he woke up one morning at the age of 40 and no longer liked the way those things looked. His response was that he would know then that it was time to kill himself. I always think of that guy when I see those things around town and I feel horrible for them and their families. I know most of them don't intend to kill themselves one day due to ear-holes, but that's all I can think of when I see thru people's bodies.