I think it depends what your reasons are for getting piercings/tats/scars, etc. I know for myself all of my tattoos were because I thought they were sooooooooo pretty. I also love tattoos more than piercings because they're permanent-you never have to worry about them ripping out or losing them.

That being said, both piercings and tattoos have always been a nice distraction for me. The planning, the drawing, the procedure, the aftercare. Which might be kind of lame, but I did notice that thinking about getting something new always lifted my spirits and gave me something else to think about for a while.

I think play piercing is probably more along the lines of SI than self-piercing or having a scarificaion done. Just because of the repeitive behaviour. And I also think it's safer than regular SI because the mentality surrounding play piercing is that it's just for pleasure (pleasure in pain I guess) and I think mostly, proper precautions are taken in terms of cleanliness, etc, depending on if you do it with others or alone.