My bf (26M) keeps getting piercings without telling me- this one might be too far

Me 25M and my boyfriend (26M) have been best friends for almost 10 years and been together for like a year and a half now and we could not be happier. Whenever we have arguments, we resolve them the same day. We’re very good at open and honest communication. We both dress kind of alt and have piercings/tattoos. I generally have no problem with this and find it attractive, but I’m a little bit more conservative with it than he is I think. A bunch of times this year he has come home with new piercings and I’ve had to just kind of say “wow looks great”. Or at worst when I reacted to the snake bites piercings, I was just a little bit shocked at first, but it was not a negative reaction and I quickly got used to them and think they look handsome. Then it was symmetrical nose piercings above the nose ring he already has (he knows I do not like symmetrical piercings much- except for the snake bites I guess, but he still got them and you know, that’s his choice and I didn’t say anything bad about it).

Now he has gotten these wild vampire fang piercings on the top lip that have spikes that hang down- they literally look like metal fangs. His face has so much metal in it now, I find it hard to find that attractive.

I tried to gently tell him that though I know it’s frankly none of my business and he can obviously do whatever he wants with his body and I’m glad he likes them, I don’t really prefer these. He said he could tell I didn’t like them from my very first reaction (even tho I tried to hide it) and said he preferred that I’d be upfront with him. I apologized and continued to apologize a lot throughout this conversation and reiterate that I still think he is very handsome and attractive and he can do whatever he wants. But I said “ I just wanted to open the conversation in the interest of honesty, I guess”. And we kind of left it at that.

This is giving me a lot of anxiety. I don’t see myself as a controlling person and I really want to be accepting especially because this is his form of self-expression and he says it makes him feel better about his appearance and body autonomy when he’s having a lot of dysphoria. But I just don’t like these. It is hard for me to not think about how people will have an even stronger reaction to him (thinking he is a “freak”) and also I lowkey find them abrasive and a little scary.

I do respect him and his decisions. I don’t want to ask him to remove them. I just don’t know if I can get past this… Am I the asshole for even bringing it up? What do I do?