Tattoos: Good or Bad?

I was talking to my good friend and mentor about tattoos a few days ago. He was sharing with me his belief as to why we should not mark up our bodies with tattoos. Most of his beliefs come from the Old Testament.

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:28).

The Old Testament is filled with commands and laws that God provided us to live by. Technically, new believers today are not under the Old Testament law. That is why Jesus came, to save us from our past and future sinning. I really struggle with reading the Old Testament because of all of it's strictness and harshness. Another good friend gave me his input of the Old Testament; he said this, "The Old Testament is a series of testimonies of God delivering His people from their sins". In relation to tattoos, a good test is to determine whether we can honestly, in good conscience, ask God to bless and use that particular activity for His own good purposes.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

I designed my tattoo myself. It started one day while I was sitting on the sidelines of my son's soccer game. I was praying and writing in my journal and just started sketching a cross. The end result is this:


The cross stands for Jesus' death for us, the vine of thorns represent the pain that He went through for us, the tribal marks behind the cross stand for Jesus as a warrior, the tribal marks at the foot of the cross represent spirits (our souls) worshiping Him, and the Sun is God watching over.

An important scriptural principle on issues the Bible does not specifically address is if there is room for doubt whether it pleases God, then it is best not to engage in that activity. Romans 14:23 reminds us that anything that does not come from faith is sin. We need to remember that our bodies, as well as our souls, have been redeemed and belong to God. Although 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 does not directly apply to tattoos or body piercings, it does give us a principle: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” This great truth should have a real bearing on what we do and where we go with our bodies. If our bodies belong to God, we should make sure we have His clear “permission” before we “mark them up” with tattoos.

To me, getting a tattoo is no different than the obese person who continues to gourd on food, the addict who continues to take drugs, the alcoholic who continues to drink, the body builder who continues to take steroids or starve themselves, or the smoker who continues to inhale. Bottom line is, I believe God is more interested in our hearts and our intentions, not our appearances.