deeperthanwar

I received an email this week after I posted last.  A friend of mine brought up the subject of Leviticus 19: 28. 
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD." (NIV)
This is obviously a bit of a sticking point for Christians, because the Bible is apparently forbidding us to get tattoos.  My friend's point was that, for many people in the Church, the issue would not be so much with the stereotypes of people that get tattoos, but more with the law forbidding them.
Personally, I don't feel like that verse is really an issue for me.  There are two reasons for this:
1. I think that it is talking specifically to the Israelites at the time.  They had just left a pagan land, and were about to enter another.  The people living in those lands were in the habit of making marks on their bodies as part of their pagan rituals and worship.  God was teaching his people that they were set apart from those nations, and this was one of the ways that he wanted them to demonstrate this.
2. Many of the laws in the Old Testament are considered irrelevant to us now.  For example, Leviticus 19: 27 (the one just before this one) instructs the Israelites
"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (NIV)
I certainly have no problem with cutting that hair.  I sometimes have a beard, but it's got nothing to do with my conviction regarding this law. 
Paul and the other New Testament writers constantly come back to the idea that Jesus completed the law.  Without Jesus, there was a need for the law, but now it is irrelevant.  So long as we put our faith in Jesus, we have relationship with the Father, so it doesn't matter whether we obey the law to the letter.  That's not to say that God doesn't convict us when we disobey him, but there's a new covenant in place here.

I'm not going to write a sermon here, I just wanted to open up the debate.  If you have a problem with tattoos, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, and that you should get one.  But I am pretty certain on what I believe, and I believe that there's nothing wrong with me getting and receiving tattoos.

I'm not done on this topic - in fact, I'm fairly sure that it's going to be a recurring theme on this blog.  I'll come back to what JLaw said in another post.

Thoughts?

It's interesting to look at the ways that tattoo culture is developing around the world.  Certainly in the UK, tattoos became more popular in the 90s, with celtic armbands being the design of choice for many.  This decade, Miami Ink, and similar shows, have helped bring even more popularity to tattooing.
Not everyone has changed their mind about tattoos, though.  A lot of people from my parents' generation still struggle with stereotypes of tattoos and the people that get them.  I was discussing this with my mum the other day, and she said, as I expected her to, that she can't get past the fact that when she was younger tattoos were mainly worn by criminals and other disreputable people.  She knows that I don't really fit into that demographic, and doesn't associate me with it, but does associate my tattoos.

I understand where she's coming from.  Sometimes it's really hard to break long-standing views on something.  It's very interesting to see how China is starting to change on this.  I read a fascinating article from the New York Times about the growing number of studios in Bejiing, and the people frequenting them. 

The journalist interviews a number of people in China about their views on tattoos. Here's the one that interested me the most:

“Tattoos are ugly, low class and an insult to your family,” said Li Miao, 68, a surgeon. “I wouldn’t judge a foreigner with a tattoo, but I would certainly think less of Chinese with one.”

I'm in an interesting position.  I work at a church, and I'm in a pastoral role.  I've also worked for some time in education.  Everywhere I go, people tell me to be very careful about where I get tattoos, because if too many of them are on show, I might struggle to get a job in a school/do missionary work in other countries/be respected by churchgoers (this is a separate issue that I might come back to sometime).  I know that they mean well, and I know that in some ways they have a point, but I can't help feeling that this is often due to their blindness to change.

People are more and more accepting of tattoos and the people that have them.  I'm not saying that it's always a good idea to get obvious tattoos, and as with any tattoo, I would recommend that you think very carefully before you get inked, but I am looking forward to a time when I might not face so much opposition about my tattoos based on who might judge me for them.  I think it serves to reinforce the stereotype.