Piercings: Why?

My girlfriend informed me today that she intends to get her tongue pierced at some point. Now, aside from me intensely disliking this idea and getting upset at the mere thought of it, it got me thinking about what it was that I actually dislike about piercings.

Some may say that it's envy - this Freudian-esque concept of repression. I tend to disagree with this, mostly because I don't believe it to be true, but partly I suppose because you can't actually know for sure what is repressed inside your mind and what isn't.

I read a comment by someone on the subject of body piercing who noted that piercings are not a part of western culture. Whilst I agree with this to some extent, I disagree inasmuch as western culture has adopted body piercing as a part of it. They've even formed a sub-culture of their own, now that I come to think of it - The Piercers. Or something.

I still think it's ugly and pointless though. Don't get me wrong - a pierced ear and some nice ear jewellery can look very nice indeed. Still though, people are taking this too far; stretching being a good example of this. Who needs a massive hole in their earlobe? It doesn't look good. It just looks like a hole. Nothing more. It serves no purpose other than aesthetics, but I don't see the use of creating something with no purpose other than to look ugly. I stumbled across a picture of a man with two stretched earlobes and two stretched nostrils. I would post the picture but sadly I neglected to bookmark it and it is lost in the annals of the internet for evermore, never to be seen by my eyes again.

Perhaps I don't like it because of the health aspects. I'm clinging onto this admittedly silly notion that somehow a piercing can cause serious damage to a person. It can't really. Unless it's left to get infected and the infection spreads.

I don't really go in for rebellion. I don't mind looking normal. It allows me to get on with my daily business and ensures that my travels around whatever part of the world I happen to be inflicting my presence upon can proceed unhindered and continue to do so until I decide to stop. Now, if I had a 'face like a portcullis' (to quote the inimitable Bill Bailey), this would attract stares. Being a naturally shy and withdrawing person, I would be slightly unnerved by the whole experience. Besides, I don't think I'm attractive enough for piercings. One has to look a certain way to be able to pull off a facial piercing. On ugly people, they just vastly accentuate their natural ugliness. No, one must be of at least average attractiveness to actually look good with a piercing, especially one as vile as a lip piercing. I've known people to have one lip piercing at either side of their mouth, thus creating the effect of looking like a vampire (I'm not sure if this is what the person was going for or not, but hey). I keep seeing stories of people wanting piercings just because 'they aren't very common'. Why? If it's common but you like it, why not go for it? Everything will be common eventually, I'm sure of it.

Surely piercings get in the way of everyday business, such as eating, sleeping, coitus and so on. You'd think bits of food would get lodged in tongue and lip piercings. Perhaps they don't. I don't know. Besides, I think I've said enough. Perhaps I'll continue this at a later date when I'm less tired.