What do you think about piercings?

Piercing are great to an extent. Some people go way overboard with it. Can keep you from finding a job if taken too far. I only have my ears pierced.

Not my thing, but I find the little diamond in the nose attractive.

I think piercings are better than tattoos for me, just because I don’t like the permanence of tattoos. I mean, sure, I may think having a certain image on my body is cool for a while, but will I think the same thing when I’m 30? Probably not. With piercings, you can always take it out, even if you will have some kind of mark there.

I got my belly button pierced for my 19th birthday and an industrial piercing in one ear a few months later. I wanted to get more. Eventually I lost interest though… The belly button ring was more trouble than it was worth (kept loosing the little ball thing), and no one really notices my industrial anyway.

I prefer it when people look like people. Earrings and nose jewels and small stuff like that can be a nice accent, but covering your face in metal and holes just isn’t attractive to me. And like @Mikewlf337 said, it makes it hard to be taken seriously when looking for a job.

I think they look hot on girls—the ones in less traditional places. Makes me want to touch.

I guess that’s what they are supposed to make you want? Or at least be attracted.

@Mikewlf337 and I have similar thoughts. ears, maybe an eyebrow. I find noses kinda gross because of mucus, don’t appreciate tongues, and get irked by genitals and nipples. but to each his own.

Aside from the small stud in the nose or a tongue piercing, I don’t care for facial piercings. Nipples and genital freak me out, and a lot of the less common ear piercings seem so complicated that it distracts me. But navel piercings I love.

If I weren’t allergic to most metals, I’d have piercings all over the place. I got my ears pierced when I was very young, and they became so badly infected that I had to let the holes close up.

I know I could get pierced with surgical steel, titanium or something like that, but I’m too afraid of infection. Why spend the money if I’ll just have to remove it? So I get tattoos instead.

Funny you should ask. I say a young man just the other day, he was probably 16 or 17. I could not figure out what was on his ear. Even up close I didn’t put together right away what I was seeing. He had an industrial piercing in each lobe that had to have been an inch and a half across. You know that th older hegets, the more those will droop. He’ll look like those women in Nat Geo magazine.
We can all sing;
Do your ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie ‘em in a knot?
Can you tie ‘e in a bow?
I laughed the rest of the day….

Some people can pull them off and not look stupid. Tougue piercings, IMO, lend to a person looking like an idiot. The ones I’ve seen anyway, play with the stupid thing and inevitably have mouth open and eyes rolled back in head. Rather bovine looking.

I wouldn’t date a girl who had nipples or genitals pierced. Ears are fine but nothing too crazy. I don’t like the nose things but would tolerate them, same with tongue and belly button.

Anything else I wouldn’t like.

All I’ve got pierced is my ears, one hole per ear. They’re just bigger than average. I don’t think I would look good with any more. However I think a lot of piercings can be really beautiful. I’ve seen monroes, medusas, conchs, labrets, septums and nostrils that are down right stunning. I think the key is sticking with piercings that suit your face and body without overwhelming it. Just what is overwhelming varies from person to person.
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@Trillian “I say a young man just the other day, he was probably 16 or 17. I could not figure out what was on his ear. Even up close I didn’t put together right away what I was seeing. He had an industrial piercing in each lobe that had to have been an inch and a half across. You know that th older hegets, the more those will droop. He’ll look like those women in Nat Geo magazine.”

An industrial won’t droop unless the cartilage is seriously compromised, frankly, it’s takes an awful lot of damage for cartilage to lose it’s form.

Also I’m pretty sure you’re referring to the tribal woman with stretched lobes when you refer to droopy ears. The thing is lobes can droop, but a big part of that is because there isn’t any cartilage in that part of the ear. Also, you have to stretch a lot to get droopy, more than an inch I think. My ears are stretched to 0g, that means they can accommodate jewelry with a diameter of 8mm. But when I’m not wearing jewelry I don’t have 8mm holes in my ears. Without something to hold them open the holes shrink up to about 3mm. What’s the point of this? Basically I just want you to know that a hole without jewelry in it is bigger than it looks and consequently less droopy than you might expect when you see it with jewelry. In short, a hole without jewelry shrinks, so when you see that hole with jewelry it is at it’s largest.

I find most of it unattractive, guages especially.

I love piercings – having them and seeing them on others. I’ve my ear lobes pierced with 8 gauge posts. I’ve my nose and eyebrow pierced. When I lose weight, I’d like to get my nipples pierced.

On some people, even the most bizarre piercings rock! On others, not so much. Some are able to sport lip and cheek piercings while others look IMO kinda trashy. I think it has more to do with the person’s overall presentation: attitude, style of clothes and hair, etc. I don’t think one’s profession should be prohibitive of the extent of piercings – I’d love to have a professor or doctor pierced up and tattooed (I have three tatts, btw). Yet I know I’m in the minority on this, so the extent of piercings when it comes to a professional depends on the context. I’m in a professional job, and I show my piercings and tattoos without a problem. My context allows for it.

I look forward to the day I’m a swiveled up old boi in a nursing home wearing dentures and rocking multiple piercings and tatts!

I am disgusted by tongue piercing. Piercing in the middle of someones lip or eyebrow I find difficult to look at also. Belly button piercing, I can tolerate, but still odd to me. Ear piercing is fine, even several holes, but honestly more than 3 each ear to me is a negative if that person wants to be a professional, like a lawyer, doctor, nurse, etc., I think multiple visible piercing works against the person for traditionally conservative jobs.

I don’t make automatic assumptions about the person; but, some piercings are simply very unnatractive to me, like mutilation.

Oh, yes, gauges. They gross me out sooooo much. It can take a totally yummy person to ick.

@fundevogel That’s what he had pierced; the lobes, not the cartilege. And they were at least an inch and a half across. The holes, not the earrings. The holes.

I love piercings and have been getting pierced since I was 17 – many were surface, many rejected, many no longer there (I experimented a lot back in the day) – I took my facial piercings out for work and I miss them terribly, especially my lip ring – it was totally and completely a part of me. A lot of the times, when I’ve gotten pierced…I’d look at the new piercing and think ‘this was always there, I just uncovered it’...that’s how it feels with my newest piercing, a microdermal in the throat. I’ve got a whole bunch of piercings in my ears and in my nipples. Tomorrow, I’m repiercing my clitoral hood, actually…I took it out right before labor with my second child and it’s time to get it back.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – so that’s what it’s called! I’ve seen microdermal piercings, but didn’t know the name. I googled it, learned something new! Thanks!

I think microdermal piercings are awesome, too. I don’t think I’d ever have the nerve to get my nether-regions pierced, though. I know people who do piercings are professionals, but there are some things I only share with my gyno and my partner! (This coming from the boi who wants hir nipples pierced.)

I think how piercings look depends on how the person presents him or herself. Some piercings look beautiful on people because they are put together and dress nicely… others just look dirty. I hate belly button piercings and the cow nose ones. Also, I know someone who has the upper bridge of her nose pierced (I don’t know how to explain it, it’s between her eyes, top of her nose) and I think it looks SO dumb.

But I’m sure people hate my eyebrow piercing, nose stud, and ear piercings. I recently lost part of my eyebrow ring and had to take it out for a day (I’ve had it in for almost 3 years) and I felt naked without it. For some reason, I just really like it.

I love tattoos (as long as they’re done well) but piercings do nothing for me. I’ve no desire to stick bits of metal in my body. I don’t hate them on other people though.

@Trillian Oh, well that makes more sense then. My response was based on your reference to his piercing as an industrial. But what you’re describing now isn’t an industrial.

Though presumably if he did stretch his lobes enough that they would droop that probably means he doesn’t mind them drooping.

@fundevogel Ah. Forgive my ignorance of the termnology. My daughter told me that industrial was what the hubcap type thing was called that opens up the lobe for closer examination to the space behind it. (I hesitate to call it an earring. Hubcap is the closest to what it actually looks like.)

@prolificus I think nipples hurt more than piercing your clit but I have really big nipplse so it’s just a longer, more painful process.

<ouch ouch ouch cringe>

so yeah about the boy with the droopy ears i think that you are talking about gauges. and they will close up if they are no bigger than 2s. if they are bigger than they will shrink up but not completely.
i absolutely love tattoos and piercings. but also, i think that they are beautiful on some people and look dirty on others. i personally dont think that i look dirty, and i have gotten a lot of complements on all my piercings.
i have my ears gauges to 0, and going up to 7/16ths soon. i also have a second hole in my ear and i have a bar in one cartiledge and just a regular stud in the other. i also have both sides of my nose pierced, currently with hoops in. i also have my monroe and bellybutton pierced. i actually want to get my hips pierced next(: and i want a tattoo inside of my lip.

now i know that that sounds like a lot and gross, but i am just that type of girl and it all goes with my style and i present myself very well, so it all works out(:

i think that getting your genitals pierced is odd, but i am not the one to judge. i dont think that i would personally get my nipples pierced, but i have seen a few people with it done and it looks really good. i have also considered getting my tongue pierced, because i dont think that it is as common as it use to be.

@Trillian That’s called a tunnel or eyelet. The solid ones are called plugs. Some of the jewelry for stretched ears is kinda hard to name. I tend to fall back on earring when it comes to hanging designs.

@fundevogel I think that hubcap comes closest as a descriptive image. They caused his lobes to turn sideways out from his head, they would not just hang or lie flat. I’ve seen those things before, but never this big of a hole.

@Trillian Hubcaps certainly isn’t a bad description. I’m not really a fan of holes so big they stick out, but I have seen some people that can pull off large sizes beautifully. Honestly, it’s generally on girls that I’ve liked really large holes, probably because in that context eyelets strike me as an interesting variation on a classic hoop earring. I might just be a weirdo with that association but I totally think it looks cute on this girl (I suggest caution if you decide to roam the rest of BME, some of the modifications are very extreme, some are NSFW).

Other than single ear piercings on women, which have been fashionable for thousands of years (and are not meant to shock), most piercings are just gross and tend to draw attention where attention is not needed. Piercings in the nose, eyebrow and nipple areas tend to become encrusted, which is simply disgusting. It’s like little kids with dried up boogers under their noses. Tongue, brow, and lip piercings draw un-necessary attention to themselves because they wiggle up and down and sometimes have mucous or spit on them and make me wonder why anyone would purposely mutilate themselves, especially near sensitive mucous membranes where they could easily become infected. And the ladies that choose navel piercings tend to (or maybe I just notice them more because they’re so icky) tend to have really gross outy navels, stretch marks or a big muffin tops to go with their navel piercing. In general, piercings are not classy and could easily make you unemployable.They’re super-trendy and I think people use them (like tatoos) to appear hip, shocking (although people will never admit to this) and to express their “individuality. What’s with all the Asian lettering on Anglo people??? Even though most people these days under age 40 have one. Not very original. As one friend of mine recently pointed out: cosmetic amputation is not far behind.

@Kardamom “Piercings in the nose, eyebrow and nipple areas tend to become encrusted, which is simply disgusting.”

If any piercing is encrusted its because it’s owner isn’t taking care of it or it isn’t healed. Obviously an unhealed piercing will require time and care to heal and a person that can’t manage to take cared of their piercings ought not have them.

“And the ladies that choose navel piercings tend to (or maybe I just notice them more because they’re so icky) tend to have really gross outy navels, stretch marks or a big muffin tops to go with their navel piercing.”

Well that isn’t really an issue with the piercing is it? Those defects (if they even are defects) exist independently of piercings. And I haven’t noticed a correlation between having outies, muffin-tops, stretch marks and navel piercings myself. I don’t see them very often though, It’s a pretty discreet piercing after all.

“They’re super-trendy and I think people use them (like tatoos) to appear hip, shocking (although people will never admit to this) and to express their “individuality.”

I take exception to this. I’m barely pierced but I’m fairly tattooed. And 80% of the time none of them are visible. I got them for myself. That’ not to say some people don’t get tattoos to be shocking but it’s unfair to write body modification at large off as merely exhibitionism and posturing. A lot of people put a lot of time and thought into these things. And frankly you have to be at least a little brave to go through with it. They are a commitment after all. The fact that they aren’t your thing doesn’t mean they don’t have value, beauty or meaning. Is every tattoo beautiful or well conceived? No. But there isn’t a category of human activity that doesn’t include a wide margin of human error and mediocrity, why should you expect any different of tattoos?

I love Basquiat. My roommate hates him but loves Baroque art which I think is boring. Clearly if humans can’t even agree of what makes good art they shouldn’t be expected to agree about what is beautiful. So don’t fixate so much about people whose aesthetic is different than yours and just appreciate the things you do find beautiful. We don’t begrudge you the things you find beautiful and you should extend us the same courtesy. After all, people aren’t getting tattooed for your approval or enjoyment.

“As one friend of mine recently pointed out: cosmetic amputation is not far behind.”

Really? And once gay marriage is legalized we’ll have to legalize human/animal marriages and pedophilia too I guess? Come on. Cosmetic amputation is desired by an excruciatingly small number people. Believe it or not no one’s going to clip off their little finger just because its cool.

WAIT

I just remebered. Cosmetic amputation is already entrenched in this country.

It’s 2:00 am. Do you know where your foreskin is?

Funny thing though. Most people don’t elect for this cosmetic amputation, its forced on them by their parents, religion and tradition. Crazy. Forget trends, it’s the establishment you should be worrying about.

@Kardamom —I’m not even going to address the majority of your post, with which I also disagree, but I feel the need to respond to this statement: “What’s with all the Asian lettering on Anglo people??? ... Not very original.”
I have a tattoo of the Japanese characters for “younger sister”, while my sister has the characters for “older sister”. We didn’t get them in order to be original; we got them because they’re special to us. My sister spent a year in Japan teaching English, and I spent a month there with her. Our tattoos are a tribute to that time spent together, and to the fact that no matter what, we’ll always be sisters.
Not everyone with an Asian tattoo has it in order to be trendy.