[pelathais]

I just don't like the needles and awls.

In antiquity most piercings and cuttings of the flesh were done to "brand" an individual as a slave or the possession of another. That's why primarily women and pirates or other mercenary forces wore the ear ring - that loop or hoop style dangle thing. Of course there were many other reasons as well - a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood, etc.

The woman was chattel for her father until he sold her off to become the chattel of another man (a wife). The pirates were often run away slaves. Mercenaries were often the slaves possessed by their captain who hired out the entire band to the highest bidder.

Free men had no such scars or piercings to identify them as the property of another. This is my own primary motivation for not being branded in any way - I am a free man. However, if I can accept a woman wearing uncut hair as a consecration to God (and I do) I suppose that on the same grounds I could accept someone else wearing an ear ring to signify a similar purpose.