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At 14, I decided that it was time for my first piercing. A friend of mine had told me that it was going to be the next trend, and I thought it was a cool thing to do. You remember what it was like to be a teenager.

But I actually grew really fond of my piercing and added more, much to the dismay of my parents. They would shake their heads when I came home with yet another piece of metal adorning my face and threatened to reduce my allowance (which, as far as I can recall, they never did).

Now, 18 years later, I still have two of those piercings, and over the years, piercings have become much more common.

When I was 14, it was still quite rare to see a pierced teenager, especially a girl, on the street. At the time, people expressed a range of reactions to me. Some of them would look at me with surprise and others with concern, while others acted disgusted.

Then there were some who’d walk up to me and say, “Wow, you’re kind of crazy, but it’s also quite cool.”

I didn’t stop at piercings. I got my first tattoo when I was 19, after much consideration. You can remove a piercing at any time, but a tattoo will last a lifetime.

In my eyes, however, tattoos are pieces of art, your body the canvas. Not everybody agrees, but those who don’t approve can simply choose not to get tattooed or pierced. To make unfair judgements about those who do is ridiculous. While body art is more common now than it was two decades ago, it is clear some prejudice remains.

Weird looks are one thing, but it’s another thing altogether that some people have a hard time finding a job because of their body art, no matter how qualified they may be. A flight attendant, for example, is not allowed to have a tattoo if it is visible when wearing a uniform. How does having a tattoo compromise a flight attendant’s ability to serve food and drinks?

I guess I was lucky. I didn’t have an excessive number of piercings and tattoos and the people in my life were always open-minded, so I never had to worry about my appearance.

Not everybody, however, has been so fortunate. Just look at the punks recently arrested in Aceh, who were advised to take out their piercings and “fix the holes.”

Neither my piercings nor my tattoos are a political statement. I simply think they look beautiful. If someone else doesn’t think so, that’s fine — I will not judge him or her for a lack of taste.

Katrin Figge is deputy features editor at the Jakarta Globe.

Thirty or forty years ago, as my parents used to tell me, men with tattoos were considered criminals. They even told me that men with tattoos would hide them out of fear that they might be killed. In the early 1980s, thousands of criminals, many tattooed, were shot dead without trial in a series of executions known as the Petrus Killings.

Consequently, for a woman to get a tattoo was simply out of the question, regardless of whether it was for cultural, religious or other reasons.

While things have not changed completely, many girls now think tattoos are cool. Our grandmothers and mothers, however, remain appalled by all the ink they see every time they go to the mall.

“What kind of a woman wants to have a tattoo on her body?” my grandmother keeps asking me every time she sees a tattooed woman walking proudly.

I can’t really blame my grandmother for her opinions because she was raised in a different era. In the 21st century, however, women understand that they have a right to make their own decisions.

As someone who has major reservations about being marked permanently by a tattoo, whether it be on my arm or back, I still find it amazing that a woman would choose to get a tattoo. After all, it’s a life-long commitment — once you have it, you can’t erase it easily.

I don’t believe you should look down on people with tattoos, though. For women, a tattoo is an artistic expression, and many tattoos are, admittedly, tasteful or eye-catching.

Some women have gone further than just getting tattoos, opting also to get piercings. Although less common than tattoos, piercings are gaining in popularity in Indonesia.

Would I let my girlfriend or wife get a tattoo or a piercing? As someone with no tattoos, I would demand answers from my girlfriend, wanting to know why it is so important to have a tattoo or a piercing. If she say it’s because she thinks it looks cool, I would reject the idea.

Perhaps behind the modern clothes I wear every day, I’m still a traditional and conservative guy inside. Or perhaps I simply don’t want to be in the awkward position of introducing my tattooed girlfriend to my aunts and uncles, who are even more conservative than I am.

But, if she tells me that the tattoo will be a symbol of our love with my name on it, I wouldn’t mind at all. What can I say? Men are selfish.

Tasa Nugraza Barley is a features reporter at the Jakarta Globe.