Leviticus 19:28, "You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord."
The Christian argument against tattooing is that the body belongs to Christ, and tattooing is an attempt to adhere meaning to the body, but God has already given the body meaning. They take the above Leviticus verse literally. They believe that Christians who get tattoos are seeking for a way to identify themselves, and they find it saddening that they cannot find their identification through God. They believe that the Christian faith and God should be our primary identity.
Jews have been forbidden, for the past three thousand years, against getting tattoos. They are supposedly not able to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, but as the Boston Globe article entitled "Jews With Tattoos" found, many local funeral directors said tattooed Jews would not be turned down. The original taboo against tattooing in the Jewish religion and culture came from the Bible verse in Leviticus stated at the top of this entry. Some scholars believe that the Jews' ideas are because of them wanting to be "a people apart".
Ori Scherr, a young Jew who decided to defy her parents and get a tattoo, believes that "The literature isn't there solely to be taken literally. It's abstract; it needs to be interpreted." She also argues that smoking, anorexia , and body mutilation also defy the Leviticus bible verse.
Another argument in the Jewish faith against tattooing is the fact that Jews who were put in concentration camps during the Holocaust were routinely tattooed with numbers. Some Jews argue that getting a tattoo only honors the survivors. Steven Ross, a tattooed Auschwitz survivor says that "To me it just means we can make our own decisions now. In a few more years, there won't be any more survivors left. Then, the only Jews with tattoos will be the ones who asked for them." However, there is a much larger group of Jews who take the Old Testament's verse quite literally and who are, to this day, strongly opposed to tattoos. They believe that it is prohibited in their faith and should remain that way.
I think these connections between tattooing and religion are important to consider. As we discussed in class, their are many different religions who all have beliefs that differ. Each person values their religion for a different reason. I, personally, don't have any strong religious beliefs, so the aforementioned beliefs would not prohibit me from getting a tattoo. I think that one's view on tattoos should be personal, and if you are so devout to your religion that it would prohibit you from getting a tattoo, then so be it, but if not, then that is okay too.
1. Jews With Tattoos
2004 The Boston Globe. Douglas Belkin. Electronic Document.
www.boston.com/news/. Accessed 20 March 2009.
2. Jones, Beth Felker. "Marked for life." The Christian Century 124.10 (May 15, 2007): 19 (2) Academic OneFile. Fale. Wheaton College. 22 Mar. 2009. .
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