1st Cosmetic Surgery for Maddie

So yes, Maddie has had her first elective surgery.  She got her ears pierced today.  She already loves to show them off.  As you can see, she likes the yellow hat as she thinks the pink stones really stand out against it.  She is already a little diva like her mother.  So seeing the immense pain that she went through to get the earrings, it made me glad we did it at such a young age.  But, it also made me wonder why we pierce ears, or any other crevice on our bodies.  There is no functional value to the piercing.  It is not like it fights infection, corrects vision, or even keeps us warm.  At the end of the day it does nothing except increase the risk of getting them caught on something and having our ear lobes torn asunder and needed a second cosmetic surgery to sow our ears back together.  I am not sure why I am speaking in "us" and "we", as I don't have my ear pierced and never will.  i had a couple of friends in high school pierce their ears, guys, and I always thought that they looked stupid.  Lets stick a long, sharp needle through our ear so that people will like us more.  Better yet, my favorite is when people where these big 3 carat diamonds in their ears to look rich.  Like I am going to think better of you because you have a big cubic zirconium in your ear.  Anyway, I think that Maddie looks adorable with the earrings, so I don't mind her having them.  I just don't understand where something like that starts.  How does someone get the idea that poking a big hole through perfectly good skin, making it bleed, and needing to insert some object so the skin doesn't fix the wound, self repair, and close the hole naturally.  And then, how do other people admire that and mirror this strange behavior.  Masochists if you ask me, but cute nonetheless.