Professionalism should be practiced no matter where you are

I guess I should first ask how you define the word "individuality" since neither you nor I have defined it yet. Secondly, my whole point with the "gang tattoos" theory was that some things cause other people to stumble. Tattoos do not generally make me stumble, but for someone else in the workplace, they might. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 8:9 that "But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak." Despite our "individualnesses" (an invented word of mine), there comes a certain point where we need to be considerate of others and not do certain things around them. It's not "the removal of individuality" but a step toward professionalism, which in turn garners respect, and which in term garners higher public image in the eyes of the public. This (in my mind) is greatly to be desired--but then I value other people's opinion of me. Thirdly, I want to address the fact that you mentioned that I was "caring only for my own view" and throwing my desires on other people who did not share my world view. This is a debate, is it not? I'm not shoving my opinion on everyone and being "judgmental" but stating my world view. Nor am I being inconsiderate of your world view because I'm hearing your world view and responding to it just as you hear and respond to mine. It is called "Freedom of Speech" for a reason--so long as it's not defamatory or obscene, I'm fine--as are you. Fourthly, I want to address the arguments you made against professionalism: 1) I agree with you that what a person can bring to the work place is very important. But what a person is able to convey about the way they care about themselves and other people around them is going to very strongly affect the potential employer. Say for an example, there is someone who gets hired at a fast food place, but they don't bathe. That's going to strongly affect the employer, because of sanitation issues that could affect other people who buy the food and also could get the fast food place shut down for those very reason. I don't count it worth it to loose a job just because I refuse to take care of myself because of "individuality" reasons. I see that as very selfish--the very reason you accused me of earlier. 2) I disagree with you that "politeness" as you termed it should be removed because of a situation. If someone is mean to me, I am in no terms going to let them have it because they "deserve it" in my eyes. I may not agree with someone, but I'm not going to chew them out--regardless of whether or not they are in the professional field. If I respect myself, then respecting someone else comes naturally because I care about their public image just as much as I care about mine. This leads into your third point. 3) I agree with you that there are plenty of immature people in this world, and that probably quite a few people end up in the military. I also agree with you that "respect is something earned" but I also believe that in that same vein falls the fact that "respect is deserved." Anyone who fights in the militia (or reserves for that matter)--and I know quite a few people as well as you do--earns my automatic respect. While I have had family members sign up for the militia, I have not had the pleasure of signing up to fight for my country. It's not something I connect with as something I could do. Work for the militia perhaps--but fight? No--I will leave that duty to those who are brave and willing to do it and I will pray for them. God works much better as my replacement in the militia, then I could do. As for your conclusion, I disagree that professionalism is just plain "rude;" it may demand some things that you prefer not to have, but it is far from rude. It demands a higher standard of living--one that everyone (at one point in time) had. I am for a return to professionalism--but then that goes back to the way I want people think of me. I would much rather prefer people to think of me as "professional" then not.