>>Do you mean the parents for having strange religious beliefs or the school for having their no piercing policy?
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>>The parents can have any belief they want. But I draw the line at having my daughter (or son) go into school with a nose ring.
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>>There are a thousand little things that adults can do, to prepare a child for being an adult. And one of them is not wearing a nose ring for school or a job interview. I'll go on record as saying these parents and the ACLU are a bunch of horse-asses in this case - they're sacrificing this kid's education.
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>Absolutely.
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>We had lunch in what was supposed to be a quaint little bistro on Tuesday - the waiter we initially got (I think it was a waiter rather than waitress) - looked like a walking junkyard. Nose, lip, cheek, ears - God knows where else. And tattoos of course.
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>We moved to a different section of the place to get a different waiter. If that offended the original one, too bad.

I don't think anything has really changed. The desire to separate oneself from your parents is neither new nor dangerous. When we were that age is was rock music and long hair. Now it's rap, tattoos, and piercings. IMO they are setting the bar pretty high for the next generation ;-)

Prediction: in a few years tattoo removal is going to be a huge growth industry.