60 years ago people our age were complaining about long hair. 40 years before that it likely was something else...
From a personal viewpoint, piercings make me cringe, as I can just picture th getting caught on something out in the woods. When I was younger and was talking to a guy with piercings, all that I could think of was that if we ever got in a fight I knew where my first punch was going.
There is a store I used to frequent where one of the clerks has those enlarged loops in his lobes... heck of a nice guy though so who am I to complain. I just can't look at his ear loops or whatever they are called.
I stopped going there when they hired a 57 YO woman who I have dealt with in another nearby store, until she got fired.
Every generation has their "things" which make them different from the last. Yet I don't believe that human nature has changed since Eve met Adam.