Multimedia Tattoos: How Inking Yourself in Cyber Space May Be Unprofessional

Why do people ask for new and innovative ideas while pushing the folks applying into the same mold? 

Courtesy of El Sonador Photography (http://www.piecesofel.blogspot.com)

Recently, I've been studying a lot of academic multimedia. I'm a graduate student in a Rhetoric and Writing program and we have a very heavy emphasis on technology and using the new multimedia platforms available to us. Now, there are a lot of things I want to discuss here and just so you're ready, here they are: What is multimedia, how to use it academically, why is it not professional, and how your personality comes through in it (and how your personality is actually the thing "damaging" you).
First, what is multimedia? According to the readings I've done over the last year and a half, multimedia is just what it sounds like: using multiple media outlets to make some stuff--literature and academic articles if you're in the rhetoric or writing fields. For example, I am currently working on a huge project for Bram Stoker's Dracula. It is a website that IS the book. Text can be a media, by the way. For my multimedia Dracula web site, I have a home page with a menu (buttons) that links you to my other parts of the site. I have a button that reads "Chapters" which will take you to the letters Mina Murry wrote to her best friend Lucy. This I left as text because Mina wrote them. However, in another section of my site I have sound files for when Mina recorded the findings on a phonograph. For these, I used a free audiobook from Librivox but I have altered it to have sounds in the background that would have come through when Mina recorded. Then I have images on links, music on some pages, and then a section of devoted to the feminism in Dracula. Which is why everything is centered on Mina on the site, but that's another argument for another time. So you see, this is a multimedia presentation of Dracula.

So this sounds like fun and games!

Literature on the web where you can click around, don't have to read in any order, can listen to things, see some video clips, have fun with font and colors! What a blast. But it's just for entertainment. No, not really. I recently had the pleasure of writing a book review for Susan Delegrange's book "Technologies of Wonder" and she blasts people's minds with the idea that multimedia could be used for academia. She also acknowledges the whole point that inspired this blog post: Images are viewed as unprofessional and juvenile (or for entertainment). I agree with her that they are not. Images and multimedia are viewed as scandalous and inappropriate for academia--just like most things that have to do with woman enjoying themselves is inappropriate. Or doesn't belong in public view.
I've read many great journals in the last year discussing the snide wordage and jargon used in journals. How people write so academically. So "knowledgeable" that it's the most boring thing you've ever read. Many leading writers and researchers in the rhetoric field agree that that kind of thing needs to stop. Yes, use your vocabulary but there is no reason to not use first person when writing "smartly". You did the research didn't you? I'm reading YOUR writing aren't I? I would like to have your voice and personality come out a little, and--in the words of Joss Whedon-- for God's sake tell a joke. My favorite editor ever Donald Maas said in his book "The Fire in Fiction" that the best thing you could bring to your writing is you. I couldn't agree more. If you believe in "everyone is unique at least a little" then the thing that is going to make your writing stand out is the unique you.
So to use multimedia academically, we first have to get our thoughts straight: there is nothing "unprofessional" about images, sounds, videos--any of that. THAT IS MULTIMEDIA LITERACY. Yes, Literacy. Like knowing how to read you can know how to work with and read multimedia. You can do things on the web (or through an electronic medium) that you cannot do in print. Now, don't worry, I'm not saying we should burn all the books. I love books and all the feelings that come with them. I will always buy a print book over anything on the Kindle. I don't even own a Kindle or a Nook or even an iPad. Any way...

We are moving towards electronic and that will never change. 

So why not utilize it? There are amazing things to be seen in that world. As Delegrange says, they are a wunderkammern of, well, wonder!
So how does this tie to tattoos?
You've seen this meme, and I'm assuming I don't have to credit it to anyone right now because I have no idea where these things come from. I hear this guy, whoever he is, is actually just fine, has a job, and is not really doing any damage to anyone. Nah, I'm not a fan of the gauges, but that's just me. I'm not going to fire him for it.

This all ties in because recently I was told that I needed to change my name on Facebook. I have a fake, made up name in my "real" name on Facebook which is also the name of my Twitter and the name on this blog and the name that was on my Wordpress. The name is special to me and blah blah blah. Who cares? Well, someone said it will deter people from hiring me as a writer or a professional anything. Have you seen my Wordpress? It's neon, space-age-ish, is called The Moral Alien, and has pictures of stars and planets on it. Not "professional" at all and I don't think it needs to be. Who decides what professional is any way? Clearly, it means "boring stuff". But to me, it means not distracting. I think my Wordpress is pretty clean and easy to navigate and doesn't hurt your eyes. Hence, I think it does what it's supposed to, which is show case lil' old me. But will that get me hired? Nope. Not according to Real People.
For example, if you've played League of Legends or DOTA or any MMO, then you know certain characters go to certain lanes, build certain weapons and play certain roles. But Apollo smite thee if you step outside that meta! In reality though, you may die if you try to go outside the box. Because one, your team mates think your stupid for doing it, and two, they won't help you out, and three you're not great at it yet because it's New and you have to practice.
But no one wants to take a chance. You may be the best editor or the best marketing manager in the world but if you have a "fun" or out of the meta online representation, you will not be picked. You have to be established as THAT GREAT already, which cannot be because no one will give you a chance. So you have to work even harder to make that chance and make yourself 200% better than the rest.
Take Abby Sciuto from the TV show NCIS. Would we love her if she had stayed in that horrible pink suite from that one episode when they told her she needed to dress for her job? No. We love Abby because she IS Abby. We know that. People who want to hire you don't know that. So you have to be that good.
I've been goth for the last ten years of my life and my parents always hoped I'd grow out of it. Jillian Ventures wrote in her book on loving the goth in your life "Gothic Charm School" that being a really good kid will help smooth over your gothiness to your parents. Don't do drugs, stay in school, say "yes, ma'am" and just be polite. Really, just be a respectable human being and you can then be gothy and spooky because you are clearly NOT a psycho murderer. And then your parents will back you up and you are set.
When I ask people for a freelance job (as I do often right now, though they are hard to get because let's face it, there are a lot of English majors wanting jobs right now, but one topic at a time, please (and they are not unemployed for the reasons you think!)) I send them my Wordpress link, a cover letter, and my resume if they want it. I want them to see my page and think "Hmm, she likes to show her personality" then read my samples on my page and go "Oh, and a good writer with experience. Very nice". I live in a fantasy land where that happens all the time. But in Real Life it doesn't. Am I hurting myself with this Tattooed Online Version of Myself? Maybe right now. But I can work through that and I know that some people will want me for me and what I can bring to them.
All the time you see people advertising for great "creative people to join" their team--the hypocrites. I will not change to fit a meta that doesn't have to rule the world. I would much rather be happy and hardly employed and just getting by then putting on the costume of "Corporate Clone Woman" every day for the next 40 years of my life.

AND ONE MORE THING!

I am not saying that every place should except you if you can fit the bill in experience and intelligence and get the job done the best(though they should). Some places have a look they want. Now, in the Office Building World that really shouldn't matter (yes, even if you are meeting a really big ranking dude from HigherUpVille. If you're awesome, they shouldn't care that you have pink hair) but it does because of the world we have created. HOWEVER, Disney says no one can have tongue piercings, gauges, or visible tattoos for their cast members. Think about it. The audience is children. Here is a moral question that I don't want to get into but let me just say, kids do not want to see your split tongue or your middle finger tattoo on your throat. For the children, please...If you want to be in the entertainment world like that, there are many places for you. But if you LOVE Disney, you will be glad to cover up for the day of work. That's different. 

Academia needs to take it's face out of its old box and realize that creativity and individuality is the only way to advance. Why do people ask for new and innovative ideas while pushing the folks applying into the same mold? How will you know who the best thinkers are if you cannot see them?