MY EARRING – my mojo or crutch ?

To some people the earring is only for “gays, musicians, artists, goths, skaters, and bisexuals,”.

The Bucket List

Ever since I was a teenager, my life style bucket list has been the following:

1. Ride a Harley Davidson

2. Sing in a rock band

3. Wear a earring stud

4. Have several tattoos

I tried to buy a Harley when I first started working, then found out it will take years of riding before I could ride a large engine bike like a Harley in singapore. This put a halt to the dream.

Then the kids came.

“Born to be wild” had to be put to pause.

Singing in a rock band has been done albeit on a amateurish scale. Maybe that will be my retirement gig.

Tattoos are under contemplation.

But the earring happened 12 years ago when I quit the legal profession.

Why the Earring ?

Not sure.

I think it’s a sense of style, a certain edginess which I have always felt, a liberation of sorts, it represents the rock and roll lifestyle I could have led if not for the fact that I became a lawyer and stumbled into the legal and corporate world.

And although I feel like a raging homicidal alpha male wolf on most days, I swear in my last life I was born a woman – I clean because I can’t stand icky filth, I cook because I feel this burning urge to feed my family and I have so many traits of a feminine nature that on some days, I feel bloated constantly and want people to call me Emma.

So the earring feeds into that hedonistic imbalance, the edgy mojo to staid self, it is a struggle between my latent feminism and the alpha threatening to rise violently.

Introducing the earring to the world

I was still in a large law firm serving my notice period 12 years ago, and my colleagues knew I was leaving the legal profession to become a Regional COO in the business world.

I went to the office one day with a reasonably noticeable blink on one side.

Young lawyers stared like they were looking at a gory accident. Shocked but wondering if, hopefully, the firm has accepted a new office policy.

I had morning coffee with my then conservative partner and Boss (now a venerable senior judge on the bench ) who suddenly sniffed and said “do you have a plaster ? You need to tape up your ear “.

Up to today, I’m not sure if he was serious.

One side or both ears ?

“Left is right and right is wrong“

That used to be the mantra 30 years ago when earrings for men were yet to be fashionable, and there was a taboo about earrings and your sexuality.

Today, one or two sided is very much a personal choice:

“The decision about which side to dangle has become increasingly practical.

Paul, a copy editor, said he chose the right because he sleeps on his left.

Jason A. Rodriguez, an actor and voguer from the TV series Pose, said he takes better pictures on his earring side.

And outside of a Brooklyn nightclub, one man told the Cut that he didn’t even intentionally step into the trend; his now signature one-sided piercing came about when the other earring was ripped out during a particularly heated blowjob.

Thecut.com

For me, two earrings seems too asymmetrical, it interferes with my lopsided edgy mojo.

Besides, I’m still in the corporate and legal world so I still need to factor in corporate world sensibilities and conservative acceptability.

Two sided blink just seems too rock and roll.

Girls asking if I am gay

I used to get that.

Or at least, it was interesting dinner conversation.

I normally ask them to guess.

Most said I was a die hard macho pig and could not fathom me as being gay.

Others said they don’t think so but one can never be sure.

I almost always use these lines:

“There’s only one way to find out ”

Or

” I’m wavering. I need you to swing me home from the dark side ”

Yes, wearing an edgy earring with lots of mojo doesn’t help you to be slick, and doesn’t save you from dispensing bad corny lines.

But do the lines work ?

“There’s only one way to find out.”