Well roughly 24 hours in, and things are going well. Swelling is less than I thought it would be, and the pain much less intense than I imagined. I can even pee without cursing. Yay!
As for daves question. I am not actually heavily pierced imo. I have 1 in my lobe (slightly bigger than standard, same size as an average tongue barbell), 1 in my tragus (the little bit of the ear that is on the side of your face not the ear), 1 eyebrow and 2 in my tongue. Most people don't even notice my ear stuff, nor my tongue unless I'm playing with it. It does kind of limit the places I can work in to a certain degree, but so would tattoos and even my choice of hairstyle. I think most places are becoming more relaxed about body mod's as they become more common. As for the why, I find them aesthetically pleasing, plus it gives me something to fiddle with when I'm nervous. If I ever decide I don't want them anymore, then I can take them out pretty easily.
Once this has healed up a bit I'm going to finish the work on my back piece, and go get a trial tattoo on my arm. Most probably a Tri force/ symbol of hyrule. Figure it's smarter to get something smaller done first, just in case it is painful or something, but I don't think that should be much of a problem.