Historically, it has been common practice for married or engaged men and women to wear a ring to indicate their relationship status. However, this time-honored tradition does not adequately provide for many situations that may be encountered in today's social settings. Although the wearing of a ring on the ring finger of the left hand gives a clear indication that a person is either engaged or married, many single individuals who are dating are left in a conundrum as they are not yet engaged or married, but are in a serious and committed relationship and therefore are not interested in looking for other people to date. Many individuals, both male and female, would enjoy or desire to meet other individuals for various social purposes such as dating. In many cases, most of these individuals would also prefer to meet others with like interests or with specific qualities. Unfortunately today, an individual cannot immediately tell much about another individual when they initially meet except for whether that person is wearing a wedding/engagement ring. As a result, this creates a situation where an individual may approach or spend a considerable amount of time with someone before they find out whether or not they are compatible or even available to date.
In addition, persons who are divorced or widowed oftentimes find themselves in quandary as well as perhaps the person is not yet ready to start dating again, no longer wishes to wear a wedding ring, and yet is constantly approached by other people looking to date them. Moreover, many same-sex oriented individuals also find themselves in a difficult situation wherein a dater, who is interested in a same-sex relationship, makes advances or receives advances from someone of the opposite sex.
Correspondingly, it is desirable to be able to visually indicate to others some important qualities about the individual and what type of companion is being sought, if any. However, to date, there has been no convenient and discrete way of signaling to another person what an individual's interests and characteristics may be other than the well-known use of a wedding/engagement ring. As a result, individuals may spend substantial amounts of time in social interaction with others before they realize that the other individual is incompatible with them.
Efforts to provide a piece of jewelry or wearable article that discretely, conveniently and quickly indicates, to other people in a social setting, the relationship status and various interests of the wearer, have not met with significant success to date. As a result, there is a need in the art for a piece of jewelry or wearable article that a user may configure to communicate specific characteristics of the wearer to other people in a social setting.