My husband has a tattoo. At one time he had his nose pierced, as well (through the center of his nose–like a bull). He’s a lot more vocal about how stupid tattoos and piercings are than I am.

As far as morality goes, I think obesity is far more questionable and that is obviously not proscribed. So comparing the two, we see that the cultural trumps.

” Sister Bednar and I are acquainted with a returned missionary who had dated a special young woman for a period of time. This young man cared for the young woman very much, and he was desirous of making his relationship with her more serious. He was considering and hoping for engagement and marriage. Now this relationship was developing during the time that President Hinckley counseled the Relief Society sisters and young women of the Church to wear only one earring in each ear.

The young man waited patiently over a period of time for the young woman to remove her extra earrings, but she did not take them out. This was a valuable piece of information for this young man, and he felt unsettled about her nonresponsiveness to a prophet’s pleading. For this and other reasons, he ultimately stopped dating the young woman, because he was looking for an eternal companion who had the courage to promptly and quietly obey the counsel of the prophet in all things and at all times. The young man was quick to observe that the young woman was not quick to observe.

Now before I continue, I presume that some of you might have difficulty with my last example. In fact, this particular illustration of the young man being quick to observe may even fan the flames of controversy on campus, resulting in letters of disagreement to the Daily Universe! You may believe the young man was too judgmental or that basing an eternally important decision, even in part, upon such a supposedly minor issue is silly or fanatical. Perhaps you are bothered because the example focuses upon a young woman who failed to respond to prophetic counsel instead of upon a young man. I simply invite you to consider and ponder the power of being quick to observe and what was actually observed in the case I just described. The issue was not (italicized in original) earrings! “

I am happy to counsel my children to avoid the pain and possible infection of tattoos and excessive piercings. I think the Church “grandmothered” earrings because we are so weird already–why make it worse?

When I first met Rebecca she sported a set of rather cool earrings in her upper ear. It was at a CES satellite broadcast, so I knew she was a good Mormon girl, but the earrings told me that she was well, cooler than the other “nice” girls. So we chatted.

A year later we were married in the Preston temple.

I am not trying to be sarcastic, rude or offensive. This is something that I really wonder about. Is it ok to do something that is clearly going to attract more carnal, sexual attention? Seems so much worse than a few more holes in the ears.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Ronan,
Great story. The earring thing, if nothing else, reveals personalities.

I’m not a huge fan of Elder Bednar’s example either, mostly because it sounds like the guy didn’t even discuss it with her, he just assumed. Better that she didn’t marry him because it would be insufferable to live with someone that assumes rather than communicates.