I started wearing makeup a lot later than most girls and as a result I've had to learn the hard way about a lot of products! I'm still learning about all the multitudes of makeup products beyond your basic eyeliner, eye shadow, lipstick, but here are a few things that I've learned as I've experimented with different looks.
Foundation. (The kind I use is a liquid that comes in a pump bottle). Does not work like concealer. Its uses include evening out skin tone, slightly helping to conceal dark circles and giving makeup a base besides skin to cling to so it is easier to remove, but it will not hide red spots, it will actually highlight patches of dry skin, and it certainly won't cover tattoos. In my case, foundation also clogs pores.
Lipstick. For the sake of all things black and fluffy put chapstick on underneath! Lipstick by itself will quickly dry out, creating unattractive cracking and flakes when speaking, and immensely drying out the lips.
Pencil eyeliners. They melt. All of them. It doesn't matter if its a $3 one from Hot Topic or a $12 one from The Body Shop they will melt off your face and all the hard work you put into your gorgeous look will be gone in two hours. I have experienced the unfortunate state of "melty eyes" with countless different eyeliner brands, with foundation and without. I have never purchased eye primer (its on my back to school list!) so I can't testify to the effects of pencil eyeliner on top of primer. Liquid eyeliner however, will not melt. Even if you draw it on thick and extend it all over your eye area, it will stay there! On that subject:
Liquid eyeliner. It stings. If you wipe it off with a makeup wipe and attempt to reapply it immediately afterwards your skin will sting and your eyes will water. I thought this might have been a reaction I was sadly singled out to suffer, but my little sister has experienced the same thing. My hypothesis is that taking off liquid eyeliner with a makeup wipe at all will make skin sting (although since I've had no desire to repeat my painful experience, I have always taken off liquid eyeliner with baby oil and hot water only).
When applying makeup, don't pull the skin under the eye. I first learned to put on makeup from Youtube videos and I watched a girl stretch her eye until the skin was taught and then apply eyeliner. This gives you a flat surface to draw a line of makeup over, but it will mess up the delicate skin by the eye, creating huge bags under the eye. I'm still trying to break myself of this habit.
Under-eye moisturizer. Pat it on using the ring finger (the most delicate of fingers) don't rub it under the eye. Rubbing the under-eye also enhances bags.
My makeup skills are ever growing, and eventually I will actually know what I'm doing, but for now, if you're a newbie makeup artist, learn from my mistakes! Does anyone have any beauty secrets I could benefit from? Please share while you enjoy today's:
Song of the Day
I picked up a Jesus and Mary Chain CD from a thrift store for 25 cents a couple of years ago, and I just dug it up again. I actually love the whole thing! Gotta love the 80's music videos!
Hair dying. I cannot seem to get the hang of it! Thus far I have had my hair dyed four times. The first time was an attempt at deep scarlet red. I bleached my natural hair (medium brown) using a Splat hair dye kit and then applied their "Luscious Raspberry" color...and ended up pinkish orange.
Ah...that picture was a long time ago. :D
This being the first time I dyed my hair, I had no idea what I was doing and probably didn't let the dye set long enough. Also I didn't know anything about aftercare, so I washed it in hot water and didn't really do much to preserve the color. For the second round I once again attempted scarlet, this time using Manic Panic's "Vampire Red" over unbleached hair. It also turned my hair pink, although I was definitely happier with the color results.
Another old picture. That was when I first started wearing eyeliner...
Next I had my hair professionally dyed for Halloween. This was the only time I actually got my hair to turn red.
Please admire my Halloween costume from last year. :)
Once that faded out, my friend dyed my hair with professional salon products. He put all kinds of colors in it, but mostly a burgundy over the reddish-orange that the above color had become.
These colors gradually faded out, and I hadn't attempted to dye my hair since. Professional colors turned my hair the right red hue, but never the ones I tried myself no matter if I bleached or didn't, no matter how long I let the dye set. This summer I finally had some money to spend and I really missed my crazy colored hair. I was also ready for a style change, so I got the undercut I'd been wanting forever and made plans to turn my hair black and turquoise. Currently my hair resembles a Barbie Doll:
Today I attempted to dye it black using Manic Panic's "Raven" aaaaaaand...well, this:
It's GREEN! Luckily I did a strand test, so my whole head doesn't look like this.
Apparently I should have researched a little more before dumping chemicals in my hair. I found out that black dyes are usually blue based. If you put them over blonde hair (which is basically yellow) they turn green! In my case, the "Raven" dye looked very black as it went on my hair, and when I washed it, it had a green tint. Once it had dried it was looking very forest green, and in natural light, it looked like Leprechauns had thrown up all over my hair. Apparently in order to get a good black, one must either have red hues in her hair or mix red dye in with the black to counteract the blue base and avoid green. This is especially saddening since my hair was a faded reddish-brown after my last dye job, and perhaps if hadn't bleached it (and spent the extra money on bleach kits!) it might have actually turned black. I'm not blaming Manic Panic as I'm sure their colors work wonderfully for some, and its probably more my ignorance and poor dye skills than any fault in their color formulas which causes my attempts at hair dying to go so awry. It might have been nice to have a warning about black hair over blonde though, as their dye package specifically says: "For best results, pre-lighten hair to a light blonde using Manic Panic Flashlightening 30 or 40 volume bleach kit." It also says "May stain blonde or porous hair" which I'm a little confused by...isn't that the point of dying one's hair?
While I had poor dye results over the blonde hair achieved through Manic Panic's Flashlightning, I have good things to say about the bleach itself. I used 30 volume and it considerably lightened my hair without significantly damaging it at all. Source
Apparently I chose the world's hardest colors to dye one's hair: really red, and very black. Red dyes are difficult because the molecules that we see which reflect red light are bigger than those for say, blue. That means that more dye must soak into the pores of the hair to make it appear red, and this is rather difficult to achieve without using pure pigment products such as those available to professional salon artists. Reds also fade quickly because of their molecular compositions. Simply put: the bigger particles don't grip the hair as well. As I found out, black dyes are apparently touchy too. There are some that are blue based and some that are red based. I was under the impression that bleaching my hair would make it easier to dye it very dark colors, but dark color dyes are made up of other color dyes, and if they aren't balanced out by hair's natural hues or offset with added color, they can turn wonky.
I have yet to try the "Atomic Turquoise" I ordered from Manic Panic on my newly bleached hair. Hopefully bright colors like this will work better than the black. If you're considering dying your hair black, please learn from my mistakes! Also, lend me your advice. Does anyone know how to achieve rich black hair? What colors work well on bleach blonde?
It's time to take a trip to the deep dark roots of the goth family tree with a visit to a certain artist who has often been called "The Godfather of Goth." Grab your torch and start digging...we're going back to the band that started it all.
Peter Murphy was born in 1957 in Northampton England. In 1978 he formed a band along with friends Daniel Ash on guitar, Kevin Haskins on drums and David J Haskins on bass. Daniel Ash had been a musician since childhood, and recorded a number of different songs with David and his younger brother, but their bands usually didn't stay together long. After their longest lived project The Craze broke up, Ash, who thought Peter Murphy "had the right look" for a band persuaded his friend to join in on his musical project. Murphy had been working in a printing factory at the time, and decided to try the idea out even though he had no previous vocal or instrumental experience. For their first gig at the Cromwell Pub on New Year's Eve in 1978, they chose the name Bauhaus because of the 1920's German art movement of the same name. They used the same typesetting as that found on the sign for the Bauhaus school in Dessau Germany as a tribute to the "stylistic implications and associations" of the time.
Bauhaus were well received and continued to work on music for their demo, for which their associate Graham Bentley also recorded a video performance. Many record companies didn't have video equipment to view the group's demo, and thus contracts were slow in the beginning, but after only six weeks together the group recorded the anthem of everything goth is and ever will be Bela Lugosi's Dead, at Beck Studios in Wellingborough. It was over nine minutes long and featured eerie feedback effects coupled with ballad like lyrics reminiscent of spiritual chanting. This single first aired on DJ John Peel's evening radio show on BBC Radio 1, and Bauhaus was immediately asked to record a session for the show which subsequently exposed the group to a larger range of listeners. Bela Lugosi's Dead stayed on the British independent music charts for two years.
Bauhaus' first album In the Flat Field was released in 1980 and it topped the independent music charts, and even stayed on British pop charts at 72 for a week. NME described the band's sound as "Gothick-Romantick pseudo-decadence." Bauhaus' second single Kick In The Eye was released under Beggar's Banquet Records as the group had exhausted the resources of their initial smaller label (4AD). It reached number 59 on the charts, and the following single The Passion of Lovers reached number 56. The group's second album Mask was released in October of 1981, and they also released a video accompaniment that was meant as a promotional for the whole group instead of a single song. Bauhaus' biggest hit was actually a cover of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. The Bauhaus version of the song reached number 15 on the British charts, carrying it's album with it up to the number 4 spot. In 1982, Bauhaus appeared in the opening of the horror movie The Hunger. The shots featured Peter Murphy almost exclusively, and he began receiving recognition as the poster-boy of the goth movement for his waif-like physique and dramatic makeup/fashion sense. This coupled with several modeling shoots he had been doing for a popular ad focused media attention on Murphy and created some strife within the band. Peter Murphy's appearance was apparently inspiring to many, for instance, Neil Gaiman based his first design for the character Dream from The Sandman comics off of Bauhaus photos. During an international tour of their fourth album Burning From the Inside (The Sky's Gone Out was the third Bauhaus album) the group disbanded the night before they were scheduled for two shows at the Hammersmith Palais in London. They performed their last show at the Hammersmith, with David J's parting words "rest in peace." Dedicated listeners who joined the Bauhaus fan-group received the single Sanity Assassin.
Peter Murphy had a relatively successful solo career after the band's breakup. His first project was the group Dali's Car along with bassist Mick Karn, although they only recorded one album. Murphy's former band members went on to become Tones on Tail (Daniel Ash and Bauhaus roadie Glen Campling) and later Love and Rockets (all four Bauhaus members had decided to get together to reform their band, but when Murphy failed to show up for the scheduled rehearsal, Daniel Ash and the Haskins brothers went ahead and practiced and decided to form Love and Rockets). Murphy recorded under a wide variety of styles, including traditional Turkish music, sometimes drawing on the sound inspired by Bauhaus, as is evident in songs like Cuts You Up (one of my favorite Peter Murphy songs!). In 1998, Bauhaus reformed for the Resurrection tour, but because of his interest in Islam, Murphy refused to sing songs such as Stigma Martyr and St. Vitus' Dance because of their religious overtones. In 2000 Murphy surprised the North American goth scene with an unannounced acoustic set at the Convergence Festival in Seattle. For a few years, Peter Murphy teamed up with Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor and they recorded several songs together and also did some tours. In 2010, Murphy made a cameo appearance in New Moon as "The Cold One."
Hi guys! Sorry I've been MIA for about a week. Starting my job has sucked up all my free time, but apart from being left to run the store entirely on my own for three hours while my coworker sat in a corner de-dreading her friend's hair...it's been going okay so far! My boss is letting me wear my piercing (yay!) and although I do miss dressing in my gothy finery, forfeiting far too much eyeliner for no makeup and trading in leather jackets for a lime green uniform shirt (seriously, that color compliments no one's complextion), I'm actually having fun working. Today I'm going to my friend's house to hang out, so I went all out with the makeup!
I really like my lips with black lipstick :)
I've had my undercut for about a week. It's going to
be black and turquoise just as soon as the
Manic Panic shows up in the mail!
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their week, and I'll try to post some more during my next day off!
Song of the Day:
I think this is my favorite song in the whole world right now.
It was Friday night and more than anything, Jessica wanted to be out with her friends. There was supposed to be a hugely crazy party happening in the next neighborhood over at Renan Bryant's house, whose parents had just left for a business trip. Everyone knew the Bryant's were loaded, so the promise of a party at their house was well received any day. But this particular party had been eagerly anticipated by more than half the student body at Craigstaff High because it was happening the weekend before Halloween. The Bryant's house backed onto the local cemetery. It was going to be perfect, but Jessica was stuck working. Babysitting to be exact. She had nothing against Ms. Denzel's two young boys, they were actually fairly well behaved and since her mother had been friends with Ms. Denzel for as long as Jessica had been alive, she usually made fairly good tips. But this time, Tyler, the younger of the two boys had the stomach flu, and missing the party coupled with her tasks of cleaning up after a vomiting six year old were putting Jessica in a rotten mood.
Thankfully, it was around 11:45 and both Tyler and his older brother Eli were asleep. Ms. Denzel worked the night shift at the local hospital, and she wasn't going to be home until seven in the morning. Jessica usually didn't mind covering for her neighbor. She had the run of the house most nights after the kids went to bed. But tonight there was nothing on TV and nothing to read; Jessica had even been so desperate that she'd finished her algebra homework a half an hour ago. She was currently sitting on the love-seat, reading and rereading texts from her best friend Alex who was describing the party scene. WISH YOU WERE HERE. Read the first one SO MUCH FREE BOOZE! :) Had come around twenty minutes later. EVERY1 WE KNOW IS HERE. THINGS ARE GETTING CRAZY!! Was the last one she had received, and she hadn't heard anything afterwards for a good hour and a half. Jessica sighed and was just about to get up to raid the Denzel's Popsicle supply when her phone vibrated with a new text from Alex.
WE'RE HEADING OUT TO THE GRAVEYARD. GONNA B AWESOME. GET OVER HERE!
Jessica shook her head and texted back Can't, I'm looking after sick kids. Take your phone off CAPSLOCK. Srry. Just so exciting! Ditch the kids for a 1/2 hour, ur gonna miss all the fun! Can't. Take pics for me. JESS, ur so going to regret this. HALF AN HOUR GIRL!
Jessica glanced up the stairs towards the Denzel boy's bedrooms. The house was totally silent. She slowly climbed the staircase and eased open the door to Tyler's room. The little boy was sleeping soundly with his arms wrapped around his pillow. The "Miss Bucket" Jessica had placed at his bedside after the third unpleasant spill she had to clean up was thankfully empty. Across the room, Eli was also asleep, one arm dangling off the mattress. Jessica closed the door again, and softly and padded back downstairs. The beginnings of guilt had crept into her stomach, but she pushed them out of her mind as best she could. Only 30 minutes. what could happen in 30 minutes if she locked the house up tight and hurried back? Be there in 5. Jessica texted to Alex and sprinted out the backdoor to her car.
Alex hadn't been exaggerating. Things at the Bryant's house were out of control. Jessica was surprised the neighbors hadn't called the cops yet, based on the sheer volume level of the music pounding out the windows of the house. Cars lined the street on both sides, and some teenagers were lounging about on the porch, smoking and drinking. Once inside, Jessica had to squeeze past a sea of thrashing bodies, accidentally knocking a couple (who appeared to be surgically attached at the mouth) into the fridge. She gave up trying to apologize after a while, no one could hear her over the music. Alex, Renan and four others she didn't know were waiting out on the back porch. Renan had a tour map of the cemetery spread out between them and one girl was already flicking her cigarette lighter nervously.
"...looks like a skull." Renan was saying gesturing at one of the mausoleums marked on the map. As Jessica stepped out the back door, Alex hopped to her feet, staggering a little.
"Guys, this is Jess," she announced, slurring her words just a bit.
"Okay great." Renan flashed a smile of perfectly straight teeth in Jess's direction. "She's the last person coming, so let's head out."
The group got to its feet murmuring excitedly. The nervous girl's eyes flicked back towards the lights of the house and she put away her lighter and folded her arms.
"Yeah, you guys go ahead," she said quietly, "I'm not feeling so good."
"Don't be such a wimp Taylor," one of the boys Jessica didn't know smirked. "You're just scared."
"Walking around a cemetery at night is illegal," Taylor quipped.
"So is binge drinking," another stranger giggled.
"Guys, come on," Renan sighed, flicking on a flashlight he had been carrying, "Who ever's coming, we're leaving. Go back inside if you want Taylor."
The nervous girl smiled apologetically, glared at the boy who had teased her, and went back in the house. The rest of the group proceeded through Renan's backyard.
As Alex drunkenly babbled, filling Jessica in on the details of the party, one of the girls Jessica didn't know sidled up to her trailed by the boy who had spoken before.
"Hi," said the girl, nodding at Jess, I'm Katie, and this is my boyfriend Jared."
"Hi," Jessica said. Jared smiled lazily.
"So, are you scared at all?" Katie continued. "I mean, have you heard the legend?"
Jessica shook her head. "What legend? I thought it was just a spooky graveyard for Halloween."
"No," Jared chipped in, "there's a particular ghost we're trying to see tonight. They say she comes out if you chant a special saying. She murdered her kids."
"No, her kids were taken from her and she was murdered," Katie amended. "Whatever. The thing is, Gage Hinder said he saw her last year, and Ashley Klie after that. This thing might actually be real."
"Yeah," Jessica mused skeptically, "or those two could have been really drunk."
Katie laughed but Jared frowned and quickened his pace to catch up with the other kids in front of them.
A few minutes later, they reached the boarder of the cemetery and the end of Renan's land. A short brick wall ran in front of them, vanishing into the darkness on either side. Several other members of the group switched on their flashlights.
"You think it'd be better guarded," Katie whispered.
"This is the back end," Alex nodded, "they don't like to mess with it to keep it 'historically accurate'."
Ahead of them, Renan was stepping over the wall. The others followed, and after a very short distance, gravestones began to loom out of the dark. Most of the names and dates were so crumbled and encrusted with lichen that they were unreadable. Some of them sat at odd angles in the grass. The group became very quiet. Suddenly, one of the girls ahead of Jessica screamed.
"What is it?" Jared's voice asked none too calmly.
"There's a person over there!" the girl pointed and everyone whirled around, aiming their flashlights. A somber angel statue stared at them from behind a scrubby bush.
"Oh," the girl giggled nervosly.
"Come on, we need to go west," Renan laughed.
It grew steadily darker. Jessica kept glancing at her watch. She'd already stayed a little longer than she'd intended. Gravestones surrounded them, and more and more creepy statues startled them as they walked forward. For a little while, Jessica could have sworn she heard footsteps trailing them, but whenever she turned to look there was no one there.
"Here it is!" Renan finally called from further ahead. The group gathered around an ornate mausoleum which bore the name "Darwen".
"Look," Katie pointed, her voice hushed, "the door is open."
A group of flashlights focused on the door to the mausoleum. It was made of wrought iron flourishes and swirls, and it was indeed open, just a crack. As they looked, the wind picked up, and the door swung slightly, creaking mournfully and revealing blackness beyond.
"That's disturbing," Jared's friend whispered.
"Not as disturbing as that." Jessica pointed. Off to the left of the mausoleum steps there was a statue of a cloaked lady in white marble. One hand was held to her forehead in a gesture of fatigue, and the other was stretched in front of her as if she had been holding something at one point. Jessica suddenly found herself fighting a crazy urge to take the statue's hand.
"Somebody say the thing," Alex giggled nervously. "Make the ghost come out!"
"Shh!" one of the other girls said.
For a while nobody moved. Then Renan took a few steps towards the White Lady. He swayed nervously for a moment before clearing his throat.
"White lady, white lady, I stole your black baby," he said.
Everyone waited anxiously. After a few minutes, nothing had happened.
"Say it again," Jared prompted.
"You say it," Renan whirled on him.
"Okay fine." This time Jared approached the statue, and repeated the chant.
"White lady, white lady, I stole your black baby."
The wind whistled and the mausoleum door banged shut. Six teenagers jumped and muttered expletives.
"Come on, let's go," Katie suggested.
"No, let's look around a bit," Jared said.
"I have to get going," Jessica said, "I left kids at home."
"I'll go with you," Alex said. They said goodbye to the rest of the group and someone handed them a flashlight. Everyone else walked off around the edge of the mausoleum, and Alex and Jessica were left standing alone.
"Come on," Jessica said. "Just a second, I want a picture to prove I was here," Alex fumbled for her phone in her back pocket.
"Alex I really have to go..."
"Okay okay, here. Take it over by the creepy statue." Alex laughed and went to strike a pose by the White Lady.
Jessica held the phone up to take the shot, turning on the flash so the mausoleum would be visible in the darkness. As soon as the camera clicked, Alex insisted on seeing the shot.
"Look while you walk. I'll be in so much trouble if I don't get back soon. Alex--"
Jessica turned around when she noticed that her friend hadn't followed her. She was standing perfectly still, staring down at her phone.
"What is it?" Jessica asked.
"It's eyes are open," Alex breathed. "Look at the statue. Look at its eyes."
"What are you talking about?" Jessica walked back to look at the phone and Alex zoomed in on the statue's eyes. They were open, and they appeared to be staring straight at the camera.
"They were always open," Jessica shook her head. "Now come on." "They were not. They were closed. And...what the hell is that?" Alex's voice rose to a panicked scream.
"Alex, what the heck?" Jessica stared at her friend who was frantically gesturing at her phone.
"Look at the door to the mausoleum."
Jessica looked. A white mist was snaking around the edge of it. If she looked closely, it almost looked like...a pale hand.
"It's...probably just the flash." Jessica said as she started walking.
"There's a fucking hand coming out of that woman's grave!" Alex cried.
"All the more reason for us to get out of here." Jessica said and quickened her pace.
They got back to the house without incident. Alex began showing everyone her phone and Jessica quickly made her way back to the car. She wasn't scared exactly, but she made sure to lock her doors for the drive back to the Denzel's house. Halfway home, her headlights flickered and went out. Jessica punched the button a few times, her heart racing. It's a blown fuse, she tried to reason. Just as she had managed to convince herself of this, something appeared in front of her on the road. Jessica slammed on the breaks, swearing. A woman stood there, dressed in flowing white. She was pointing down the road, and staring directly at Jessica with familiar eyes...they matched those on the marble statue at the mausoleum. As soon as she had appeared the woman vanished. Unable to comprehend what she had just seen, Jessica stepped on the accelerator. The sooner she got back to the Denzel's, the better.
"They stole my child..." said someone behind her. Jessica screamed as a grotesque face appeared in her rearview mirror. It was deathly white, skull like, with lank black hair that hung over it's sunken eyes. Rotting teeth stuck out of it's gaping mouth at angles. Jessica flung open her door and stumbled out onto the road. She started to run, only to be confronted by the White Woman again in the middle of the road. This time the apparition rushed at Jessica, and a frozen hand gripped her neck. Jessica couldn't breathe. She struggled wildly and managed to break free, just as a brilliant pair of headlights rounded the corner. The car swerved and blew it's horn loudly.
"WAIT!" Jessica cried, hurling herself after the speeding driver, but the car continued down the road and a voice behind her was crying
"They stole my baby girl..."
Song of the Day
Sorry, I got a little carried away on this one. I sort of combined three different ledgends. And I probably shouldn't have wrote it in the dark :P
Hi guys, it's July! You know what that means? My big list of blog posts that was nicely taking up space over on the sidebar is going to vanish under a contained monthly heading and you'll all get to see how many times a month I really post, without all the extra help from old already written posts. :) I'm enjoying being back in the blogging community though, and it's nice to connect with everyone out there (23 followers! YEAH!) so I'll do my best not to vanish entirely again. You never know what the coming year may bring, especially since I am now EMPLOYED! Which also means, I have an alter ego.
You see, I've been trying to find a job for months now, and while other factors were involved (some people didn't want to hire a high school kid that could only get to work after 3:00) I have to believe that a lot of the time, jobs were turned away from me because of the way I looked. One day I was walking home from school and I stuck my head in a bunch of local businesses, just to see who was hiring. Mostly people nicely told me they were fully staffed. One lady looked me up and down a few times, then very pointedly said, "No." At first I was all confidence, showing up to interviews how I normally dress because it was what made me feel comfortable. I'll win them over with my attitude, I'd tell myself, and they'll see past the lip ring. But as job opportunity after job opportunity went by, I started to reevaluate.
I tried dressing down. Apparently my view of dressing down is still out of place in the corporate world. Instead of all black, I wore some hippie-ish skirts. Instead of pitch black cat eyes, I wore grey eyeshadow. And then the job killer: I still showed up sporting my lip ring. I went to one interview that my friend had set up for me because she worked at the company where I was trying to get hired. I was wearing my lip ring but the interview seemed to have gone okay. When I hadn't heard anything back for a good while, my friend checked with her manager, and she said my interviewer had noticed my piercing, taken into account the company's "no jewelry policy" and set my app aside. My friend stepped in for me, telling her boss what a good employee I'd make (what are friends for right? :D) and she made it clear I could take my piercing out. Her boss reconsidered, but after a while when nothing was happening, I called to see if the hieing process was over and my friend's boss said the person who had interviewed me had somehow assessed my character in ten minutes determining I "wouldn't work well on the team."
Okay, they're interviews. Employers are supposed to evaluate potential employees, so when it comes down to it, an interview is basically putting yourself out there to be judged for the duration of the interview. And maybe I just interviewed badly. I was trying to get my first job after all, so I was probably somewhat nervous. I was trying to get jobs in the food industry (mostly coffee shops) so I realize there are regulations regarding piercings for sanitary reasons. Personally, I would think they would rather have a piercing closed with jewelry, instead of requiring someone to take it out and leave an open hole (ew), but when it comes down to it, it's easier for the employers in food industries to hire someone who doesn't have a piercing in the first place. I began to see that my image just wasn't fitting in a small town corporate setting. So. I changed.
For my last interview, I showed up in black pants and a tank-top covered by a grey button down jacket I borrowed from my little sister. I wasn't wearing any makeup, I took my lip ring out, and I carefully kept my wrist tattoo hidden under the table. Voila! Job within a week. The manager seemed really nice and the atmosphere was laid back, but when she asked if I had any questions and I subtly asked about a jewelry policy I was a little uncomfortable to hear her say "We don't really have rules about that. You look fine, I mean, if you came in here with stretched ears or a big tattoo we might have a problem, we're very family oriented." I suppose I can understand body modification rules around food. But I really don't think some ink under someone's skin or the color of their hair will affect how they handle customers. Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond ecstatic to have finally landed a job, and overall, it seems like a very nice first job. Now I'll have references for other jobs and of course some money to spend on gothy goodies all over the internet put away, but I am a little disappointed to have to hide how I like to express myself to work in a frozen yogurt shop of all places...
I'll keep you guys posted on my adventures in Corpgothdom. While some of my paychecks will surly be going towards retainers for my lip ring and concealer to hide my tattoo as I project the image of "Corporate Girl!" I hope to use some of it to fuel my gothy hunger (new hair, fun accessories, experiments in makeup) and as I'm finally learning to drive, a car might be in the cards during the next year! That means ghost hunting, cemetery picnics, and clubbing/concert posts. :D
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