[IIOA]

As an internist, I can honestly say that body piercing has come up only once in the 10 years I've been practicing. The one particular case I am remembering was a person who had her tongue pierced and she developed an odontogenic infection resulting in my recommendation to remove the metal piece and put her on antibiotics.

I think what can be safely established is that there are reputable physicians just as there are reputable body art......uh.....technicians/specialists/artists? I seriously doubt, however, that their "liability" is as costly or as ethically significant in a medicolegal sense as my responsibility to give the best advice possible to my patients. I would also point out that the judgment of the innate "goodness" of advice given by a physician is due in large part to the personal agenda of the patient. For example, if a patient seeks advice on how to lose weight and, instead of receiving the diet pill he wanted, he gets a detailed discussion of the thermodynamics of caloric intake and practical solutions on how to diet and exercise - he might go home and tell his friends that that stupid doctor gave "bad" advice, simply because he the only "good" advice he recognizes is what he wants to hear.

P.S. At no time has anyone sought my opinion on ear piercings, and for that I am extremely grateful....