i have been asked this question a lot, from the Christ-following perspective of ‘Is it okay for a Christian to get a tattoo or not?’
And then yesterday i got my first one and so my opinion on the matter should be pretty easy to figure out.
The one verse i am aware of that speaks of it directly, can be found in Leviticus 19.28 which i thought said, ‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead,’ and i have always argued that it was a culturally specific thing that was talking directly to the process of marking yourself ‘for the dead’ which was a pagan ritual and therefore very different to what any Christians i know with tattoos were going for.
The only other verse i have ever heard quote against tattoos was the one in 1 Corinthians 6 which reads,
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
And to be honest, this feels a lot thinner as an argument against tattoos as the people raising it will not use the same verse as an argument against eating badly or not exercising and other things which are way more detrimental to your temple than a tattoo.
SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM
i clearly remember the time i was driving to the airport many years ago to pick up my parents and i had this sense of God telling me it was okay for me to get a tattoo. Not that i should get one, but that if i wanted to [as this was something i had been thinking about] then i could go ahead and do so. The verse that specifically came to mind was Matthew 6.33 that reads, ‘Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.’
So for me that was a significant moment of permission granted and for many years i thought i would get the phrase ‘Seek First His Kingdom’ as my tattoo. Again, not because God had said i should but cos i felt He had said it was okay.
The main thing i thought from that moment on though, was that i wanted a tattoo and specifically i wanted to be marked for Jesus. i wanted a mark on my body that signified that my life was given to Christ.
Which plays into the end of the Corinthians verse where it says, Therefore honor God with your bodies, which is exactly what i am hoping to do.
OR PUT TATTOO MARKS ON YOURSELVES
It was only much later, as in about ten minutes ago, that i checked up on that verse which i feel like i have checked out many times, just to make sure i was quoting it right when writing a post on it, to find that it actually reads like this:
28 “‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.
Oops. That seems a little more specific. i had not seen the second part of that verse before and it does seem a little hard to wiggle around, excepting that Mary Fairchild, in her article, ‘Should Christians have tattoos?’ gives a contextually helpful explanation of her feelings towards it [which i agree with] over here:
This is a question many Christians struggle with. I believe tattooing falls into the category of “disputable matters” where the Bible is not clear. But wait a minute, you might be thinking. The Bible says in Leviticus 19:28, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord.” (NLT) How much clearer can that be?
It’s important, however, to look at the verse in context. This passage in Leviticus, including the surrounding text, is specifically dealing with the pagan religious rituals of the people living around the Israelites. God’s desire is to set his people apart from other cultures. The focus here is prohibiting worldly, heathen worship and witchcraft. God forbids his holy people to engage in idolatrous, pagan worship and sorcery which imitates the heathens. He does this out of protection, because he knows this will lead them away from the one true God.
It’s interesting to observe verse 26, “Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood,” and verse 27, “Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.” Well, certainly many Christians today eat non-kosher meats and get haircuts without participating in the forbidden worship of pagans. Back then these customs were associated with pagan rites and rituals. Today they are not.
She sums it up as falling into the category of disputable issues as related to in Romans 14, which among other things, gives permission to believers to eat food that was offered to idols in certain circumstances, and shifted the choice of getting a tattoo or not to one of motivation and awareness of those around you.
My sister, Dawn, summed it up in a similar way when she said to me that she doesn’t like the idea of people getting tattoos just for the sake of it, but when someone gets it for a specific reason, like i have in wanting mine for a number of years now, then she thinks that it great.
So the answer to the question, ‘Is getting a tattoo right or wrong?” is yes. And no. Depending on you and your circumstance and any weaker brother that may be watching.
i do feel like mine was sanctioned by God. and i did it intentionally to be marked for Jesus and to hopefully precipitate conversations with people when i explain what it means to me [there are a few levels] but more of that in the next post.
[To read the story of The History of my Tat and see the beautiful thing, click here]
Dude…you are so going to…just kidding…I hope it is as half as cool as your wife’s : ))
Perhaps a series on Mosaic law and how Christ influences that law should follow this tat thang. I tend to take much of what is in Leviticus with a grain of salt when looked at through the lens of Christ–particulary things like “an eye for an eye.”
You are so right, Steve, but i think i should get an expert in to write on that. Let me know if you know anyone… mine is pretty cool!
[full disclaimer – I have tattoo, and I don’t believe there is anything sinful about it]
I agree with Steve however on the need for a deeper look into the Mosaic law, Covenant Theology and the NC. Brett, a couple of times I’ve seen reasoning in your blogs or sources that amount to this; “You don’t take Lev x:x seriously so why are you focusing on Lev y:y?” but quite honestly, that alone is a poor argument. Yes, contextualising Scripture is important (she is not wrong in her assessment of Lev 19:28 as I understand it) but if we don’t deal with the broader issue/understanding it feels too much like “wiggling around” and not like us truly engaging with the Scriptures involved.
What would a non-believer think if they read this particular post? “These Christians just pick and choose what they want to obey as is convenient for them”
i hear you and agree with you on the Leviticus stuff in terms of the need for a greater understanding to be present, but typically when i am using that line of reasoning it is to directly refute someone who is holding on to one verse and ignoring a bunch of others and i think it is enough in that moment to get them thinking about why their reasoning is not valid in that case. In that moment i am not looking at Levitical laws and why they do or do not need to be obeyed in the way we understand them, which i think would require much deeper diving into the Scriptures and which i think a lot of people i know can do much better than me which is why i don’t attempt it. So bigger picture, i think it is needed, but in the moments when i write that response i think it is enough for that argument that is being brought against whatever the particular point is in that moment.
Hi Brett. I agree with you perspective, your remark “I wanted a mark on my body that my life was given to Christ” is pretty significant. I wrote a post on it a few years back which I think you will appreciate. It contains a lot of the historical background of Christian tattoos as well. I hope you don’t mind me linking it here:-
http://wrostoll.blogspot.com/2013/11/christians-and-tattoos.html
Thankx Westley, will check it out!
Thank you for a very interesting topic. Yes I am having a tattoo done sometime in 2015!
I have asked all of the questions, read all the scriptures and checked them out. I had a lot of negative feedback, one being I must be be careful not to offend my brother/sister in Christ. After much prayer and thought, I realized I would become so concerned with, what others thought, that I would not have time for my Lord. So I spoke to my Lord first, and guess what ? God gave me absolute peace about a tattoo. Okay let me explain – I was burnt as a 10 month old baby, bearing scars that have been so part of my life, but as of late I have been working with Reptiles – Yes, snakes, lizards, iquana’s etc for 3D educational purposes, working in schools, Old Age homes etc.
Here are some of the remarks that I have been asked of me lately –
Oh! that is ugly, were you bitten by a snake? – No, I was burnt with boiling water…….
Oh those scars are terrible, were you in a car accident? – No I was burnt with boiling water….
So now I am have a tattoo that glorifies my Lord, I am thinking of the Trinity Symbol and written in Greek “God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. I am still open to ideas and suggestions.
So when I am asked what does that Tattoo mean I can glorify my Lord. Oh ! and by the way I am a granny of 8 grandchildren. So I have almost lived out my 3 score year and 10! hehehe
That is so great, Cheryl. i think if you’ve done the hard work of checking up in Scripture and you’ve checked it out with God and feel like He is giving you the go ahead then you’re good to go. Again what a pleasure to have something that points glory back to Him. All the best and please come back and share a picture when you’re done.
Love brett fish
Why don’t they simply remove Leviticus form the Bible then? It is full of stuff that we aren’t allowed to do – seems pretty extreme actually. If anyone followed that to the tee, they would be like the Amish or something.
There is a reason to it being there in terms of understanding the full picture and journey of the church from Adam through Israel to the New Testament. It was addressed to a specific time and context though so understanding what God was trying to do – ie Set His people apart from the other tribes and nations that didn’t follow Him was important at that time. Which is why a holistuc understanding of the Bible is more important than picking random verses and using them…
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Hey Brett,
Here is a response I gave to somebody when I first showed pics of my tattoos and was asked the question: “What’s your view on Leviticus 19:28?”
Firstly, you can’t view any single verse in the Bible in isolation, nor can you follow what is written in most verses down to the letter. The Bible is, after all, an incredibly complex collection of books and letters written by different people in different times, within a Mediterranean cultural context and for different audiences. Some verses are meant to be interpreted symbolically, but others are seen as presenting unchanging, literal truths. (As with every piece of scripture) it’s important to read it in its historical, cultural, biblical (that is; what do the preceding and following scriptures say… ‘what is the conversation about’ if you like) and theological context (what does the rest of God’s word say about the issue). If you don’t, then you run the risk of misinterpreting God’s word.
The word which is rendered ‘mark’ occurs only once in the Bible: qa‘aqa‘. Its etymology is obscure, but in Lv. 19:28 it probably refers to tattoo marks which, along with ‘cuttings in your flesh’ (i.e. ‘incisions’ or ‘lacerations’), the Israelites were forbidden to make.
In its biblical context it comes in a portion of various laws for the Israelites. The concluding words of the preceding chapter, I am the Lord your God, serve as a natural transition to this particular body of legislation, which also regulates the holiness of community life. More specifically, it occurs in the same sentence about ‘cutting yourself for the dead’. There is a definite link here.
This leads onto the historical and cultural contexts. The prohibition against marking the skin may involve either tattooing or painting the body as part of a religious ritual. Such markings may have been designed to protect a person from the spirits of the dead or to demonstrate membership in a group. The shaping of the hair on the temples and beard (verse 27), or the incising of patterns on the skin, formed part of pagan mourning practices. The disfiguring of the skin, which probably included some emblems of pagan deities had pagan and magical associations and dishonoured the divine image in a person, and was forbidden because it did not reflect God’s holiness. Additionally, divine ownership is sometimes evoked in images of bodily markings.
At the heart of this law, was God’s desire for his chosen people to be different from those around them; for them to trust and focus solely on him; for them to be holy (different, set apart, special) as he is holy (different, set apart, special).
Now it could be argued that tattoos dishonour God in that they change/ mark his creation (us) and in doing so we are preferring our own design over his. But if this is the case, then surely cutting our hair, or dying it, or shaving (for men – our faces, for women – legs and armpits), or piercings do the same and should not be done…?
What about stoning to death a rebellious son? (Deuteronomy 21.18-21)
What about selling all our possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor – should we have these laptops when so much of the world can’t even eat today…? (Matthew 19.21)
A question that has been challenging me (for a while now) but fits this discussion is: how far are you willing to go with what God says…? As far as the obvious? As far as what’s comfortable? As far as what is socially acceptable? As far as the full implications? Or not at all?
Going back to the topic of tattoos, I have heard two different testimonies:
A hardcore biker became a Christian and when he was prayed for they sweated out.
However with another guy, when he prayed and asked God to remove them God said no, as he would need them… turned out he would work as a prison chaplain and because he had tattoos he was able to speak with and have a greater influence/impact on the inmates.
And according to Isaiah 49.16, God himself is tattooed…
Having said all that, at the end of the day, for me, it is a personal thing between me and God. I took almost three years to decide on getting these tattoos and since then, I have not once felt convicted that they were/ are wrong. In fact, if anything, they have been great conversation openers and have allowed me to talk to people about God on numerous occasions.
Thanks Mark, that is super helpful. Appreciate you taking the time.
My experience is that when people speak of God’s “Law” there is usually a mis-match in understanding which leads to all kinds of wriggling. What exactly are you referring to? His moral law? the ceremonial law? the civil law? the OT as a whole? God’s specific covenant with the Israelites mediated through Moses? (the Bible uses the term “law” for all those distinct ideas) For example, do you know what Lev 19:28 or Deut 21 fall under? The core question is “what does or doesn’t apply to the Christian today?” – the short answer is, very little due to the (new) obligations of the New Covenant. Clue – “new”.
Against, contextualising is important and, to some extent, understanding “the heart” behind some of God’s more obscure civil/ceremonial laws is too BUT the overriding principle is that we not bound by the civil and ceremonial aspects because we are part of the new covenant wherein Jesus has already fulfilled these things. The moral law (i.e. the 10 commandments) is timeless in that reveals the actual character of God and is such, still important to us but we don’t need to be dancing around OT scriptures trying to find every contextual wiggle room we can find.
You started to (rightly so) explain the existence of these laws in the first place with
”
At the heart of this law, was God’s desire for his chosen people to be different from those around them; for them to trust and focus solely on him; for them to be holy (different, set apart, special) as he is holy (different, set apart, special).
”
but then confused the issue by questioning their application. You are relativising your response to God’s “law” when you should be seeking to understand its relationship to us.
”
how far are you willing to go with what God says…? As far as the obvious? As far as what’s comfortable? As far as what is socially acceptable? As far as the full implications? Or not at all?”
”
Clearly the answer for any Christian is “as far as I can!” but that testimony is ruined when we find excuses for not taking certain portions more seriously than others. The entire Bible should be taken seriously! Seriously enough for you to understand that you are not bound by the aforementioned verses, and such, don’t need to justify your actions.
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