Piercings in the workplace. Acceptable?

Tight times in the bible belt of New Iceland.

Yeah, I can understand in the meat room or whatever, but I work in the front end (checkout), and I see no reason, unless it's infected. But I have asked management and it's mainly for appearance.

Again, I don't have any. But I think it's unfair to those who do.

Comes down to this. Conservative people have money, pierced freaky looking folks do not. Your employer has an established image of clean cut normal looking employees which is what the conservative people with money want to see when they frequent that business. They look at you and subconsciously think "the hiring standards are dropping I wonder what other standards they are allowing to slip?" This kicks back in their noggins for a bit until they stop at a competitor and notice that the employees are not pierced. A warm fuzzy feeling settles about them and your employer loses a customer.