It was extremely popular when I was in high school to have multiple piercings on each ear lobe, up to three from my recollection, plus ear cartilage piercings up and around a girl’s ear. I can think of five honors students who were doing this in high school, in the 1980s. One friend of mine had several piercings in each ear lobe, and on one side, she kept pulling on her earring so there was a slit in her ear not quite completely through (about a 1/2"). She also had started growing her pinky fingernails long. Last I saw her in high school, each pinky fingernail was 3" long. Rest of her nails were normal length.
What would an employer think of that?
As for “there is no difference” between different piercings, it is a matter of degree. But to me, anyone who gives their baby girl pierced ears because of “tradition” is mutilating their child. Then again, if you have “normal” pierced ears, you are mutilating yourself. Once you mutilate yourself, you can draw the line where it stops. Just because it seems more normal to most Americans to have a pierced ear lobe instead of a pierced nostril (very common in some cultures) doesn’t mean the first is normal and the second is not.
People like people who have symmetrical faces, pleasing features, don’t look out of the ordinary. Piercings and tattoos make an individual look more individual, like they actually made a choice and are advertising that choice. Which is great. I’d rather my kid be an individual than a sheep. But the sanitary/health/medical part of piercings would be something I would surely discuss with him.
If my son made a hair, tattoo, or piercing choice and one of my relatives thought it necessary to “educate him” about it, and he told me about it, I would find it difficult to not tell them to buzz off and raise their own children. But I would probably instead tell him that people who focus on others’ appearances might be insecure in their own choices and to have sympathy for them.