Hey JJ
u r right tattoos are HOT! Lool
and all the things you mentioned r allowed.. BUT, you'll have to cover them up!
It'll be hard to cover the nose piercing lool.. unless you live in Saudi heehehe
y scholars? Good question JJ.. so let me tell you why...
there are many shiks and scholars, but the ones that we follow are chosen based on very specific criteria, and we call them “marjea”. I'm not sure how many we have, but I'm pretty sure we have around 20 or something. I'm sure of only 7
you'll have to chose one of the “majeas” and follow him in everything.. it's not like you follow whatever u like from each.. no you choose one and stick to his answers.. when he dies it's a different story..
the most popular two are Sayad Sistani, and that's his site: www.sistani.org
and Sayad Khamnei, and that's his site: leader.ir
ok, back to your question of y we choose them. Ok their job is to interpret and explain what's their in Quran and Hadith because as you know some things aren't that clear of unknowledgeable people like us. So, they do the hard job for us, and they get all the rules about the new stuff like tattoos, and other things that weren't directly mentioned..
I think having merjea is soo cool! Lool.. they get all the info I want..
~wonderer