If you earned your blackbelt you are always a blackbelt,however, you may not always be a martial artist.
That is a very interesting and well-taken view of it...just as a Ph.D. in economics who taught university for a few years, decided tenure wasn't in the offing, went to law school and wound up practicing tax law till retirement wouldn't be an economist at that point... but they'd still be a Ph.D in economics.