Tattoos and Faith

Today, a bunch of my students had to write a paper on whether they thought getting a tattoo is a sin or not. I found myself considering the issue deeply, and I believe I've finally formed an opinion on it.

See, the verse in question is Leviticus 19:28, which says “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.”

Now, I've heard 2 arguments on this.

1.The Bible clearly says not to tattoo ourselves. Therefore we shouldn't.

2.This was talking about cutting and tattooing as an act of worship to idols. As long as we're not worshiping idols, we're okay.

Both these arguments are faulty. First comes the fact that under the new covenant we are no longer bound by the law. In fact, if you look at the verse immediately preceding 19:28, you'll find a command for men not to trim the sides of their beards. Now, pretty much every guy I know trims the sides of his beard. Even the ones who argue the binding nature of the following verse.

Second, the context of the verse makes clear that this passage refers specifically to practices performed as acts of worship. The beard-trimming, for instance, has to be stipulated because a common cult of the time had side-trimmed beards. In order to keep the Israelites from being confused with those cult members, God established specific rules for appearance like a dress code that keeps students from advertising gang affiliations at school.

I even heard some students defend the idea of tattooing by mentioning the “mark” on Jesus' thigh in Revelation as a tattoo.

But these arguments miss the point. First of all, we are in fact not bound to the law, but that does not mean we can live like heathens. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “Everything is permissible, but not everything is helpful.”

Secondly, we cannot deny the specific commands of God as to how we should live. He has directly requested that His followers not cut or mark ourselves as an act of worship as the heathens did, and in some cultures still do. God's also requested that we not engage in sex outside of marriage, and I don't hear anyone debating that in the church. Besides, if we'd been able to find a way out of the abstinence policy, I think we would have by now.

I think the biggest lesson that we can learn from this request is that God's request for us is that we do not make physical marks of devotion, because our faith is not gained nor maintained through physical mutilation of our own bodies. This is why we no longer circumcise. (Incidentally, circumcision may have had more health than spiritual reasons anyway, but that's another discussion entirely.)

The only marks created by our redemption should be those on the body of Jesus Christ. And those who say that they wish to tattoo themselves for the sake of their witness do as much good to the Gospel as an alcoholic saying he gets drunk for Jesus.

And in referring to tattoos which are not religious in nature, we must then ask ourselves if the act of tattooing our bodies is glorifying to God, since we know that as Christians everything we do must necessarily pass through this filter: is it edifying, does it give glory to God alone?

So, is tattooing a sin?
In a word, no.

But it does indicate a dangerous lack of foresight and formidably bad judgment.