Is It Permitted Or Prohibited For Christians To Get Tattoos? That Is What We’re Going To Talk About Today.
Is It Okay For Christians To Get Tattoos? And Today We Are Finally Going To Tackle That Question. And Real Quick What Are Your Thoughts? Do You Think It’s Prohibited Or Permitted For A Christian To Have A Tattoo? Leave Your Answer In The Comment Section Below.
Now Any Time You Asked A Question Similar To This There Are Always Going To Be Two Extremes. On One Extreme You Have The Legalists Who Say If You Get A Tattoo You’re Going To Hell Buddy. On The Other Extreme You Have A License And These Are Christian Sirs Say I Am Christian Therefore I Can Tattoo My Entire Body With Whatever Image I Want Because I Am Free In Jesus And Somewhere Between This Extreme And That Extreme Lies A Happy Medium Called Balance.
Now The Scripture That Most People Point To Say That Christians Should Not Or Are Prohibited From Getting Tattoos Is Leviticus Chapter 19 Verse 28 Which Says You Should Not Make Any Cuts In Your Body For The Dead Nor Make Any Tattoo Marks On Yourselves, I Am The Lord. Now As Much As I Love A New American Standard Translation And All Sorts Of Other English Translations I Must Say That The King James Version Got It Right This Time. And King James Only People Are Just Salivating At The Mouth Because The Word Tattoo Was Not Even A Part Of Our English Language Until The 1700s. The King James Reads It This Way “We Shall Not Make Any Cuttings In Your Flesh For The Dead Nor Print Any Marks Upon You I Am The Lord” This Is A Great Example Of How Important Context Is. Because If You Take Any Verse Of Scripture And Just Rip It Out Of Its Context You Can Almost Make The Bible Say Anything You Want It To Say. So Now We Have To Ask The Question In What Context Was This Particular Command Given. Let’s Go Back And Actually Read From Verse 19 Says “You Shall Not Wear A Garment Upon You Of Two Kinds Of Material Mixed Together” So Guess What If You Are Wearing Polyester And Cotton Right Now Buddy You’re A Sinner. Skipping Down To Verse 26 It Says “Do Not Eat Meat That Has Not Been Drained Of Its Blood” So If You Are Like Me And You Enjoy A Good Burger Or Good Steak From Time To Time Well Guess What You Are A Sinner Buddy. And Then Finally In Verse 27 It Says “Do Not Trim Off The Hair On Your Temples Or Trim Your Beard” So If You Are Someone Who Likes A Good Haircut And Likes To Line Up Your Hair And Likes To Line Up Your Goatee According To This Passage Of Scripture You Are A Sinner. Now A Little Bit Of Research, Here Will Let Us Know That Moses Delivered This Message To The Nation Of Israel Shortly After They Have Been Delivered From Egyptian Bondage And So As They Were In The Wilderness They Were Still Very Tempted To Go Back To Some Of The Old Traditions. Some Of The Old Practices. Some Of The Old Customs Of The Pagan Culture From Which They Had Been Delivered. From One Of Which Was Cutting Their Bodies In Honor Of The Dead Or Marking It With Images Of Pagan Gods. So Clearly The Context Here Is Prohibiting Them From Going Back To Pagan Practices Such As, Idol Worship And So Instead Of Setting Up Some Legalistic Rule That Says No Christian Ever Can Get A Tattoo Because Of A Verse That Has Clearly Taken Out Of Context. Instead I Want To Encourage You To Ask Yourself These Four Questions instead of asking Can Christians Have tattoos?
The First Question I Want To Encourage You To Ask Yourself As You Think Before You Ink Is:
What Is The Very Purpose Behind? Why I Want To Get This Tattoo?
Is It Because You’re Trying To Compete With Someone Else So That You Can Show That Your Sleeve Or Your Tattoo Is Better Looking Than Theirs? Is It Because Of Some Sort Of Emotional Response? Maybe You Got Out Of A Relationship That Wasn’t Good And So As A Result You Just Want To Get A Tattoo To Show That Maybe You’re Free From That Relationship Or Are You Rebelling Against Your Parents Or Are You Thinking That This Tattoo Can Somehow Enhance Your Beauty?
So If You Do Not Have The Right Motivation Behind Wanting To Get This Tattoo Then I Would Suggest That For You It Is Not Good To Get A Tattoo
The Second Question As You Think Before You Ink Is:
What Message When I Possibly Be Communicating With This Particular Tattoo So Clearly If You Are Getting A Tattoo That Has Images Of Skull And Bones Or New Age Theology Or Some Naked Woman Sitting On A Car Or Something Like That Then That Message Is Not Necessarily Consistent With The Message That You As A Christian Want To Present To Society. So In That Regard, It Would Not Be Wise For You To Get That Particular Tattoo.
The Third Question As You Think Before You Ink Is:
Could I Possibly Be Enticing Someone To Lust With My Particular Tattoo?
Now This Could Be Done In A Couple Of Ways. First Of All It Could Be Done With The Actual Image That You Choose To Get Placed On Your Body. If This Is Some Sort Of Voluptuous Image Or In Some Sort Of Sensual Image That You Know Is Going To Draw People’s Attention To Your Particular Tattoo. It Could Cost Someone Else To Lust Or Stumble In Some Way.
The Second Way Is Not Only The Image That You Choose But The Location In Which You Place That Particular Tattoo. So If You Are Putting Your Tattoo Like Somewhere, Where You Know Most People’s Eyes Are Gonna Go That Could Very Well Entice Some People More Than Likely Some Men To Lust After Your Body. Because They’re Focused On Your Tattoo.
The Fourth And Final Question I Want To Encourage You To Think About Is:
Will I Want This Tattoo Many Years From Now?
You Know Tattoos Right Now Are The Big Thing. They’re very Popular. Everybody’s Getting Them But You Only Want To Ask Yourself Am I Gonna Be Content With The Way I Look When I’m 60 70 80 Years Old And My Body Is All Tatted Up Right So You Want To Not Necessarily Think About The Short Term But More Importantly How This Particular Decision Is Going To Affect You In The Long Term.
Conclusion:
So Is It A Sin For Christians To Get Tattoos? Well In Some Instances Maybe, It Is But In A General Sense, No There Is Nothing Clearly In The Bible, That Says It Is A Sin For A Christian To Get A Tattoo Particularly If You Plan To Use That Tattoo As A Conversation Starter Maybe You’re Going To Get – There’s A Scripture On Your Wrist Or Something Like That And People May Ask You Hey What Is That And You Plan On Using That To Share The Gospel Or And Initiate A Conversation About Jesus Christ That Necessarily Isn’t A Sin. So If You Are A Christian Who Does Not Have A Tattoo Be Very Careful That The Enemy Does Not Tempt You To Look Down On Someone Who Does Have A Tattoo Because The Bible Says Clearly That, “We Are Not Able Or Nor Should We Judge People Based On Their Outward Appearance” And Then The Final Thing I Want To Say Is It’s Very Important For Us To Take Care And Maintain Our Outer Body At The End Of The Day God Is Much More Concerned With What’s Going On The Inside Of Our Heart Rather Than On The Outside.
