Health and Cultural Sensitivity: a personal anecdote

I’ve been MIA for the past month due to work and personal travel (my parents came to India!). I’ll update you on my parents’ visit later, but for now I thought I’d tell you a bit about one of my afternoons in Hubli, a semi-urban area in NW Karnataka.

Since I’ve been in India I’ve been thinking about getting my ears and nose pierced. I finally decided to go for it in Hubli. I journeyed with my friend Amy to a jewelry shop that was recommended for piercing. The afternoon turned out to be regrettably controversial, and I am deeply sorry to say that Amy and I unintentionally offended the man piercing my nose and ears.

After picking out my gold earrings and nose stud, the man showed up. He carried with him a short fat little copper stick (the copper weapon of death) to do the piercing as well as pliers and metal cutters to bend and trim the gold once in my nose.

Amy, ever the proactive public health advocate, asked them to clean the jewelry. Their resistance raised a bit of a red flag, and we grew very insistent that they clean everything involved (including my nose and ears and his hands). Knowing that we were treading a very fine line between protecting everyone’s health and seriously offending him, we maintained a firm but self-deprecating attitude. Being from a different country, my immune system has developed differently (and possibly not as well).

The piercer initially cleaned everything by using a stagnant bucket of water and a towel that employees used to clean the store. Discovering that they had no soap or alcohol, Amy went to a pharmacy for alcohol and surgical gloves. The piercer refused to wear the surgical gloves (which were for both his health and mine), and then placed the clean jewelry and tools in his mouth, which we then re-cleaned while explaining to him that it’s because people’s mouths carry tons of bacteria and not related specifically to him.

By this point we had inadvertently caused quite a scene. The entire store was staring and laughing at us while the piercer was pretty pissed at the whole situation. After about 20 minutes he managed to pierce everything and get the jewelry through the appropriate holes. It wasn’t the piercing part that was painful, but rather securing the earrings and nose stud. It hurt so much I felt as if I was about to faint.

At the end I tried thanking him, knowing that he was angry and grateful that he still did the piercings, but he was so mad that he stormed out of the store.

I know and understand why he was so mad, and I feel terrible and upset that I made him feel that way. While we knew we were treading a very fine line throughout the whole process, we did a really bad job of actively and practically considering his feelings. Should we have left? Would that have made him feel worse? Where do you draw the line between protecting your health and seriously offending someone else? What could we have done to protect my health (and his, if that’s what he wanted) and make sure that he left feeling satisfied, valued, and dignified?