What Do The Religions
Say About Tattoos?
One subject on which the major Biblically-based religions
agree is that getting a tattoo is wrong. Fundamentalist
Christians, Catholics, and Jews all agree on this. They
do, however, hold very different viewpoints on why it is
wrong. It is interesting to take a look at the beliefs
and viewpoints of these religions-- not only what each
one believes, but what each one bases that belief
upon.
For Fundamentalist Christians, the generally-expressed
opinion is that people should not get tattoos because tattoos
are "a pagan practice." Fundamentalist leaders state that
this is a good enough reason for not getting tattoos, although
they also add that there is nothing in the Bible which
states that a person should not. Potential confusion
regarding this standpoint is explained in terms of the
Fundamentalist belief that the whole of the Bible consists of
the New Testament, and the New Testament contains no references
to tattooing, either positive or negative. Describing the
practice of tattooing as something that was, or is, done by
pagans, constitutes their main objection to the
practice.
As Catholics believe that the Old Testament is as relevant
as the New Testament, the general Catholic negativity toward
the subject is covered by such Scripture passages as Leviticus
19:28, which reads "You shall not make any cuts in your body
for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on
yourselves..." For most Catholics, though, it
is still usually considered to be more a matter of personal
interpretation and personal choice. The usual modern-day
Catholic interpretation of the subject is that while tattooing
is indeed wrong by Biblical standards, it is not necessarily
sinful.
The Jewish faith takes the subject, and negativity about it,
even further. As the Books of the Old Testament are taken
to be the word of God, and commandments to be adhered to, in
the Jewish faith tattoos are something which is simply not
done. This commandment against any desecration of the
body has been proported to be one of the main reasons tattooing
was done on observant Jews at the concentration camps during
the Holocaust; it was not merely a means of
identification as many people assume. It was an attempt
to separate observant Jews from their God, albeit
unwillingly.
In the Jewish faith, desecrating the body with tattoos is
considered to be such a violation of the commandments that a
person who has tattoos is sometimes denied burial in Jewish
cemeteries. While this used to be the standard practice,
modern times reflecting fewer prohibitions has resulted in this
being less of a concern than in the past. Although today
few but the most orthodox consider it to be a serious issue, it
is still indeed an issue.
The general consensus amongst these three major
Biblically-based faiths is that it is wrong to get tattoos,
although each one's reasons and points of view certainly
differ. Whatever one's personal faith may happen to be,
the two main factors involve both what one's religion teaches
about tattoos, and what their specific reason is for it.
These are important factors regardless of how observant an
person is of his or her particular religion; and makes it
clear that one should consider both factors in order to make an
informed decision on whether or not to get a tattoo.
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