That's kind of an unfair double standard Blue, don't you think? I don't see what the problem is in letting people do with their own body what they see fit to their standards of self-image or beauty.
The original purpose of body modification was to have a characteristic about yourself that you had in common and was special to your tribe, so it had to be something other than God given. This would almost always be accompanied with a ritual that was painful and as you say disfiguring to test your personal merit and show your devotion to your peers by willing to endure the ordeal. Of course these things usually were voluntary and not mandatory, which also made them special and was the only fair thing to do. When one standard, especially an unnatural one is ****** upon the group, that is a bad thing.
That is what tattoos and body piercings were created for.