I believe in having an individual look to stand out and express who I am, so I took a different route- do nothing. I am not beautiful, I have a biggish nose and several other flaws. However, I wouldn't get a nose job (or other cosmetic surgeries)if someone paid for it. If I did, I could be perfectly beautiful. Without it, I'm perfectly me, and I like it that way. I don't need to do anything else to stand out. I'm already unique. However, if anyone wants (wherever) rings, that's their ideal of self beautification, so why not? The key is whether someone is doing it to enhance themselves, or to damage or destroy themselves. I would say the vast majority of tatooers and piercers fall into the former category. If they think it's lovely, who am I to say it isn't? As for the "expectations of socienty" and employment, that changes all the time. At one time, you had better not have long hair, or black skin, or be female. I'm not hiring the jewelrey, I'm hiring the brain inside it.