Once upon a time, when I was wilder, younger and living in Austin, I decided to dye my hair. Purple. I also had about 10 piercings and a couple of tattoos.

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Those tattoos you got in college won't count as your something old or blue on your wedding day.

While the tattoos are mine for life – plus six months – most of the piercings are gone, and I've managed to keep my hair its natural color for the last seven years.

But my little foray into body alterations helped me see the drastically different ways people perceive such things. When I was dating with said look, it was funky to some guys and freakish to others.

While it's hardly the domain of sailors and rebels anymore – plenty of accountants and youth ministers sport a lip ring or lower back tat – those changes affect a singleton's personal stock value, so to speak, on the dating market. Many times not in a good way, either.

"Piercings are unacceptable – they creep me out! I have a kind of gag reflex with them, something about the foreign body through the flesh ... eeew," said Michaela Kuenster, 25, who admits that even though she has two tattoos, they're a mild turn-off on a guy. "I can look past it, but I'm not out there saying, 'Look at that dude with the tattoos!' "

She even expresses some regret for the most visible one on her upper arm. "As my mother put it, 'You're going to have to have that monkey tattoo on your arm when you wear your wedding dress.'"

Among the gay men he sees at bars, there's one small alteration that Michael Nesbitt, 36, finds comic.

"The fake tan thing doesn't do anything for me. In fact, I usually chuckle," he said. "Tattoos don't bother me ... if it fits."

Acting too cool for school seems to be the biggest no-no when it comes to any sort of body art.

"If he has one somewhere special, that's a turn-on, like on his back or shoulder where he doesn't show it off but he shows it off to me," said Grace Vroom, 17. "I hate piercings, though, because I think it's a way to say 'I'm a badass.' "

Lip ring or lower back tat? E-mail your preferences to Leah at lashafer@gmail.com.