When I was in high school, a friend of mine (who claimed to be a Christian) told me he was considering getting a tattoo. I was mortified. In a last-ditch attempt to dissuade him from what I thought would be certain catastrophe, I rushed to my exegetical armory and pulled out my trusty saber:
“You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:28).
I couldn’t site chapter and verse at the time, but I knew the Bible condemned tattooery and I wanted my friend to know it.
Never mind the fact that nine verses earlier Moses forbade wearing a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. I was oblivious to the possibility that Leviticus 19 might require a bit more hermeneutical rigor than proof-texting.
How should we think about tattoos today, particularly in light of Leviticus 19:28? Back in September ‘07 Denny Burk linked to an audio clip from John Piper answering the question, “What do you think of tattoos and body piercing?” Here is part of Piper’s answer:
On the verse itself [Lev. 19:28], there were probably circumstances that made that absolutely warranted there. Whether that should be applied with the same absoluteness today without other factors being taken into consideration, I’m not ready to go there yet. I think there are other questions to ask that are more heart and motive and Christ-exalting questions than simply “Is there a verse?”
What do you think? Is it ever appropriate for a Christian to get a tattoo? What questions should we ask ourselves when contemplating the choice?
More to come…
3 comments
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July 21, 2008 at 3:35 pm
John T Meche III
I am a Christian (reformed, calvinist, Christian hedonist type), and I have 4 tattoos. I have an Ichthys and a firey dove representing the Spirit on my left arm, and on my right have a trinity symbol with the words “Adopted 9-6-98″ in the center. Below that is “John slave of Jesus Christ” written in ancient Greek.
July 22, 2008 at 9:00 am
Peter Nickell
The classic response that someone will give who wants to try and justify getting a tatt will be soemthing like this ” OH Well your a hypocrite! does it not say in the verse rite before it ‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard.” . . . Well yep it does. There are soem people who will go to Extarinary lengths jsut to justify getting what they want.
I myself have a tattoo, i have the name “Jesus.” written across my right wrist. Damn it was sore. Anyways, We can get into technicalitys and soooo many argments over this topic, to the point were it just becomes ridiculous the amount of time we spend arguing about it… i personally feel that when I got my tatt done, it was more than me marking myself for the sake of my image i wanted to MARK myself for Jesus. I know for a FACT that god has not held it against me, only good has came from it. The amount of people ive talked to about is jsut Crazy!
I am not using that verse about shaving your beard to justify getting a tatt, but it does seem to me that alot of people do pick and choose what they want to hear out of the bible.
July 22, 2008 at 9:25 am
Mom
Hhhhmmm, great question. I have to say, with my now 50 years of experience
in this world, tattoos seem to be the latest “fad.” I see younger people getting
them to look like everyone else, though they claim to be individuals, independent
of everyone else’s opinions; and I see older people (my age) getting them to try
and grasp onto the fleeing sphector of youth. Occasionally I sense a little embarrassment from the people who have gotten them. I find that interesting…