Nit: No a’s are buried in a cemetery.
What if I have a tat of a wolf with a halo? Will that be allowed? After all, my Hebrew name is “Baruch Ze’ev” (Blessed Wolf, for all you Goyim out there)
You mean Gerry Rivers?
Howdy, from one Zev to another!! 
Zev Steinhardt
The whole “no burial in a Jewish cemetary with a tatoo” is a myth. I don’t know how/where it started, but you CAN be buried in a Jewish cemetary with a tatoo. That being said, however, tatoos are still forbidden. In the case of forced tatoos, of course, there is no sin involved.
Zev Steinhardt
Just a nit about earrings:
Exodus 32:1-3
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2
And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3
And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
So earrings were acceptable for men and women at one point. Does the prohibition come later?
grem
Yes, obviously.
I believe that the proscription of all body piercing (for men) stems more from the need to not do as the pagan inhabitants of the land of Israel did than with the notion of desecrating the body.
Um, not meaning to sound disrespectful, here, but how is it that ear-piercing is considered desecration, but circumscision isn’t?
Because circumcision is a positive commandment (that is, it is an obligation to perform a particular act), while getting a tattoo or piercing violates a negative commandment (that is, an obligation to refrain from performing a particular act).
Jewish laws can be categorized in certain ways, but it is perilous to try to extract a general rule from a bunch of specific rules. Saying that “desecration/mutilation” is prohibited requires a very precise definition of the terms, which may not agree with the common English definition. Remember that the laws (including, generally speaking, modern legal decisions) are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and so any expression in English is at best an imperfect translation.
The act of (male) circumcision is (except to a vocal, non-normative minority) not considered by Jews to be an act of mutilation.
(Anyone wishing to start an anti-circ flame war may now take it to GD or the Pit, where I, for one, will studiously ignore it. Been there, done that.)
Rick
No, it was Geraldo Rivera. I’m serious.
I reiterate that there is no prohibition against body piercing for men or women.
The only category of prohibition that such an act might fall under is the prohobition against cross-dressing. (This has also been suggested earlier by RickG). To the extent that earings might be considered a woman’s manner of adornment, they would be prohibited for men. And this indeed would be dependent on the fashions in place at a given time, and as such is subject to change.
(BTW, Geraldo Rivera’s mother was/is Jewish. He was originally named Gerald, but when he decided to embrace his Latino heritage he switched to Geraldo).