Am I in a National Geographic Photo shoot?

The other day (well let's be honest, it's every day) when I was getting coffee, I turned to briefly look at the person next to me and almost vomited....through the enormous holes in his earlobe.  I think one of the weirdest body adornment practices which is popular right now is the 'discs in the earlobe' thing.  We all remember (I do at least) looking through the National Geographic magazines as kids and marveling, wide-eyed, at the mainly African peoples with the lip discs, ear discs, and my favorite, the ladies with all the brass rings around their necks in order to lengthen them like giraffes (I'm waiting for that practice to become popular).  I have pierced ears, and a small tattoo, and I'll admit for years now I have toyed with the idea of getting more ink and even a possible nose pierce.  But I think when you start to adorn yourself in a way that is mainly associated with a particular ethnic group, something gets lost, and the tradition can be disrespected.  More often, though, I just wonder what all these young hipsters are going to look like when they're 80 and they have earlobes down to their armpits...what a sight that will be.