I apologise that I'm probably beating a dead horse, but I'll just get this off my chest.
Everyone gets judged for their fashion choices, so let's all stop pretending, shall we? If you've ever looked at someone and thought "that looks awesome" or "that looks terrible," or anything in between really, then you've done it.
So how about we stop commenting on the motes in our fellow forum-goers' eyes?
One side of the conversation likes the way piercings look; the other dislikes it. It is doubtlessly a polarising topic. Their reasons for liking or disliking them are obviously personal. So if someone says "I wouldn't do it unless there were a pragmatic benefit," there's really no point in trying to logically argue them out of that viewpoint. They are not saying that all actions should be driven by practicality, just that they don't like the look of piercings. The difference between the risk of piercings and the risk of crossing the street for them is, quite simply, that they want to cross the street. It's no more complicated than that.