Tattoos

AnamGlas

Just a quick question, is there anything in the Bible that states tattoos are in any way "wrong" or "sinful"?

All replies welcome

PatricaMcKay

Yes there is....Somewhere in the OT, though I believe that the Copts practice tatooing on a small scale.

homer911

Leviticus 19:8 in the Old Testament. Nothing specific in the New Testament, other than your body being a temple of the Holy Spirit and honouring God with your body

"Christian tattoos" might be debatable - check out Cornthians 10:23

PDN

Anybody wanted to live by Leviticus is welcome to do so - but count me out!

While not sporting any tatts myself (better things to do with my money) I see no reason to condemn them.

Manach

PDN wrote: »

... I see no reason to condemn them.

homer911

PDN wrote: »

Anybody wanted to live by Leviticus is welcome to do so - but count me out!

While not sporting any tatts myself (better things to do with my money) I see no reason to condemn them.

But if a Christian came to you and said they were considering their first tattoo, would your response be different? We are all sinful! The OP didnt ask if a person with tattos should be condemned.

Fanny Cradock

homer911 wrote: »

The OP didnt ask if a person with tattos should be condemned.

I think PDN was talking about tattoos, not those who sport them.

homer911

My question is still valid though...Given at least the New Testament guidance we have, what would be the advice to a Christian considering their first tattoo? While I'm not trying to trap anyone into an answer, body piercings are spoken about in the same way as tattoos in the Bible. While most Christians dont have a problem with pierced ears, they tend to spurn pierced noses and lips (and other body parts...)

PatricaMcKay

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/demello-dalrymple-2647

http://www.city-journal.org/html/5_4_oh_to_be.html

homer911

PatricaMcKay wrote: »

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/demello-dalrymple-2647

http://www.city-journal.org/html/5_4_oh_to_be.html

LOL! I hadn't made the association!

Monty.

I see no harm, after that taste is subjective.
Much of Gustave Doré’s art would make excellent tattoo’s if you're into them.
Personal opinion is that less is sometimes more, and choose carefully.

Festus

If one is not happy with the way God made them and seek to change their appearance it would be a sin, giving in to vanity. No real difference between tattoos and plastic surgery.

Leviticus 19: 28 "Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the LORD."

Matthew 5:17-19 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Luke 16: 16-17 "The law and the prophets lasted until John; but from then on the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone who enters does so with violence. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter of the law to become invalid."

I sure there are many who got tattoos before becoming Christian, or while they were lapsed, but upon returning to Christian life they probably shouldn't get any more.

georgieporgy

how about this kind of tatoo

[Embedded Image Removed]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.6e1e2ad90e2d94b12b6258b7e9c5b33d.611&show_article=1

keano_afc

My understanding of that verse in Leviticus was that it only applied to dead bodies. So I see no scriptural reason not to get them. Aesthetically on the other hand...

Festus

keano_afc wrote: »

My understanding of that verse in Leviticus was that it only applied to dead bodies. So I see no scriptural reason not to get them. Aesthetically on the other hand...

DR might be a better source and makes it more apparent that the directives are towards the living and is a scriptural reason not to get them

[26] You shall not eat with blood. You shall not divine nor observe dreams. [27] Nor shall you cut your hair roundwise: nor shave your beard. [28] You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks: I am the Lord. [29] Make not thy daughter a common strumpet, lest the land be defiled, and filled with wickedness. [30] Keep ye my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

A_Fitz

Manach wrote: »

Original stuff there from Wayne :rolleyes:

Ismhunter

Festus wrote: »

If one is not happy with the way God made them and seek to change their appearance it would be a sin, giving in to vanity. No real difference between tattoos and plastic surgery.

Leviticus 19: 28 "Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the LORD."

Matthew 5:17-19 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven."


Luke 16: 16-17 "The law and the prophets lasted until John; but from then on the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone who enters does so with violence. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter of the law to become invalid."

I sure there are many who got tattoos before becoming Christian, or while they were lapsed, but upon returning to Christian life they probably shouldn't get any more.

Festus you are going to have to explain to me why you would follow that part of leviticus and not another. ???

Ismhunter

PatricaMcKay wrote: »

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/demello-dalrymple-2647

http://www.city-journal.org/html/5_4_oh_to_be.html

Convincing arguments... ive never quite shaken the fact that no matter what i want to insribe on myself i really am only showing the world how much i think so much about myself...

interestingly contra his arguments of it being a lower class things. George the 5th of england had full sleeves done in the japanese style of tattoo.

mehfesto

Just to add a bit of light-heartedness to the subject, I sat beside a very posh lad in college, who bore two drunken tattoos on his body from different occasions.

On his neck was a barcode with IAN RANKIN IS NOT A PRIME NUMBER written below it (he doesn't know what it meant either) and on his calf muscle he has 'Livin' d'life. Lovin' D'Music'... the old 2fm slogan. Again he's puzzled as to the meaning of it. He's harmless - can't imagine him getting up to any trouble.

He seems nonplussed by them, mind. He looks like a gob****e when he's going about in his summer garb, though.