Can Milwaukee professionals remain pierced?

For three years, I worked a professional job in Corporate America in a suburb just west of Milwaukee. One weekend, just a few months after being hired, I -- rather impulsively -- got my nose pierced. This raised a question that I would ask myself and others over and over again: Can Milwaukee professionals remain noticeably pierced, and if so, at what cost?

Some say it depends on the industry you work in. An advertising copywriter, say, could get away with it, but could a lawyer? What about a CPA? Maybe it depends on the culture of the business, not the field. Maybe it doesn't really matter at all, and I've been wasting time thinking about it.

And, of course, it depends on where you are pierced. There are plenty of places to pierce and no one will ever know, but this article assumes we are talking about facial piercings.

What do you think? Can you groom yourself to look cool while being groomed for a big promotion?

I personally didn't stay in Corporate America long enough to find out, but here is my story: I am 32 years old and I have a pierced nose. I used to wear a silver hoop but now I wear a small diamond that was a gift from my husband for our third wedding anniversary.

I worked at a conservative company where I was the only person with a facial piercing, but it took months for someone to finally ask me about it. Right before a meeting, a woman in a man's suit asked, "Did that hurt?" I really wanted to launch into graphic details about the quick-but-awkward nose-piercing process and the smelly, cheesy infections that followed, but instead, I just shrugged and said, "Not really."

I was controversial creature in my corporate community, and I wonder if it was because of my pierced nose. Some of my coworkers enjoyed getting an occasional whiff of my weirdness, but others, I'm sure, would have preferred to install an electric fence around the confines of my cube. They resented my boldness.

In my life outside the cube, a pierced nose was no big deal. But I've considered taking out my nose stud, not only because it seems a little passe, but also because I'm thirty-two and I want to be taken seriously. Isn't it time to stop expressing myself like a teenager? Can't I be content with being a closet bohemian? Must I fly my freak flag ALL the time?

But just when I think my pierced nose is making too much of a statement, I have a rare moment where I'm looking in my rear-view mirror to make sure my lipstick's on straight, and the diamond in my nose catches the sunlight, and it sparkles.