Lebell... thank you for the dose of sanity. Your reply was (as always) nicely balanced.
I have an ampallang (it is the piercing the goes through the head horizontally). I had it done about 12 years ago.
I had it done after reading RE:Search Modern Primitives. After I saw pictures of various piercings I just couldn't get the idea of getting on out of my mind. I thought about it and it just seemed like the right thing to do (and I thought about it for at least a year before I did it).
I booked the appointment and was nervous but resolved to follow through. The pain of the actual piercing was little compared to the "discomfort" of the clamp used to bring the two sides closer together. It was over before I knew it.
Needless to say I was very happy with the experience and the end result. It was a very "spiritual" event for me (for lack of a better word). It marked me internally as well as externally.
In part, I viewed it at the time as a coming of age "ritual". Much as youth in other cultures must in endure to "reach" manhood. I'm not sure I see it that way now but then that was 12 years ago...
My girlfriend at the time was not overly supportive at first but I was resolved to get it and she grew to appreciate it in a fashion (besides she gave me a blow job in the parking lot before I went in to do the deed... she wanted to be the last to mess with my unpierced penis...
)
Someone posted above, what are you going to look like when you are 40? Well, I am 35 (almost 36) now and I'd say I look like a guy who had his dick pierced (that is if you actually see me naked otherwise what are you a peeping Tom?). The way I see it, it was something that was important to me at that time in my life. If I grow and change into a person that no longer wants to wear jewlery in my penis all I have to do is take it out (much as I did with my various earings when I was in my late 20s). Try doing that with a tattoo...