Generally, you can install Perl from source without clashing with the system one. We used to have to do this on Redhat after they decided to include a release of Perl with their distribution that had performance issues (see Bitten By the Red Hat Perl Bug)

Redhat's Perl is installed under /usr/bin with libraries under /usr/lib while the default location if you compile from source will be under /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib. I'm guessing that other distributions are the same. But if you just want Perl for yourself, appbrew will fit the bill