Being a Christian...With Ink

Lately I have been thinking of different ways to evangelize. Of course there's the normal (not to mention cliche) way of going up to people and doing a "Way of the Master" on them. But being a teenager that has to be able to relate to those who are young ,in age as well as faith, I needed something easily understood.
Talking to a few guys at the lunch table a few months ago the question came up asking if getting a tattoo as a Christian was wrong.
Now everyone goes directly to “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.”  Leviticus 19:28 — New American Standard.
What people fail to realize with each piece of literature there is always one rule that should never be broken. READ EVERYTHING BEFORE AND AFTER!! Or in other words DO NOT pick and choose what you want from the piece of work and attempt to enforce it based on that part alone. Doing that is a very dangerous thing seeing that it could possibly change the meaning of just about anything. With something as beautiful as the Bible there should not be one reason why we shouldn't take it for what it is in its wholeness. You will never get the real meaning of anything by zeroing in on one scripture and not what was written along with it. In this case this is what was said:
26 ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying. 27 You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. 28 ‘You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD. 29 ‘Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. 30 ‘You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the LORD. 31 ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.


Leviticus 19:26–31 — New American Standard
 
Basically God is talking to his covenant people telling them to stay away from certain religious practices of surrounding groups. Of those he names eating bloody meat, fortune telling, certain hair cuts related to the priests of false cults, cutting or marking the body for dead relatives, cultic prostitution and consulting psychics. All things that would cause you to stray from God and towards false lower case g gods. Now it does say "tattoo marks" but this is where the research that in my opinion everyone should partake in comes in. Back in that time those marks were not the same as what we call tattoos nor were they used in the same manner. In our day and age tattoos are basically body decorations such as body piercings, nail polish, make up, etc. At that time people got these "tattoo marks" were wanting to connect with cultic religious practices such as honoring the dead. The reason alone of these cultic followers receiving the marks on their bodies was a disgrace to God as Leviticus 19 states in its many verses. But in order to understand just why God spoke against it there must be even more research about these so called tattoos. Modern tattoos are received by having a needle break the top layer of skin and ink place right below it. When it heals whatever piece of art you chose will show up in that place. The marks in Leviticus were obtained by deep gashes made on the face, arms, legs and wherever else to show respect for the dead or to praise the leader of whatever cult the person was attempting to be apart of.
If you were to read that passage in Hebrew you would notice that the word "qa aqa" is used and it is the only time it is used in the Bible. Due to many things in the Bible having to be translated from Hebrew to other languages ,that either did not have that word or had many words with the same meaning, some words had to be substituted for another due to there not being a direct translation. The word tattoo in our English Bible is the word "qa aqa" which in Hebrew means literally "to cut". If we take it in the context of the passage we can safely believe that those words indicate a cutting that leaves behind a physical imprinted mark. Like said earlier this could vary from many things such as branding, scarring, cutting, or inlaying ink into the skin. Whichever way it was done we are sure of one thing for certain and that is that they were obtained for cultic worship. The reason God placed what could be called a prohibition against "qa aqa" was only to keep those people from becoming apart of the cultic worship.

The practice of making deep gashes on the face and arms and legs, in time of bereavement, was universal among the heathen, and it was deemed a becoming mark of respect for the dead, as well as a sort of propitiatory offering to the deities who presided over death and the grave. The Jews learned this custom in Egypt, and though weaned from it, relapsed in a later and degenerate age into this old superstition (Is 15:2; Je 16:6; 41:5). “nor print any marks upon you” (v:28 )—by tattooing, imprinting figures of flowers, leaves, stars, and other fanciful devices on various parts of their person. The impression was made sometimes by means of a hot iron, sometimes by ink or paint, as is done by the Arab females of the present day and the different castes of the Hindus. It it probable that a strong propensity to adopt such marks in honor of some idol gave occasion to the prohibition in this verse; and they were wisely forbidden.
Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D. (1997). A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. On spine: Critical and explanatory commentary. (Le 19:28). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

“Make any cuttings in your flesh” (v:28): the reference here is to the practice of making deep gashes in the skin while mourning the death of a relative. This was done to provide life blood for the spirit of the dead person rather than to express sorrow. On account of the dead: as indicated above, this describes the purpose of all the actions in verse 27 as well as verse 28.

Péter-Contesse, R., & Ellington. (1992). A handbook on Leviticus. UBS handbooks; Helps for translating (Page 296). New York: United Bible Societies.

Things we do now such as wearing certain clothing, piercings, wearing make up, cutting our hair, dying it, plastic surgery and so on are all things we do to alter our appearance. If you want to seem a certain way or express that you are a lover of something you find a way to express that. In most cases you perform an alteration of some form and it ends up having to do with your body. When this is done it is simply looked upon as someone exerting self expression although almost all of those things once held the belief that they were bound to false religions. Honestly do you cut your hair, get braces, receive lasik laser surgery, and cut your nails to defile your body and disrespect God? People do not modify their looks to disrespect God or defile the temple he created especially if they do it honoring His word. These sometimes daily tasks have become nothing but a way of expression. One must also remember that the New Testament believers are not bound by the Old Testament laws. We do not need those laws to gain or even regain a relationship with God. If those laws were to be enforced we would have to uphold many laws such as not wearing clothing made of different fabrics, eating shellfish, and certain hairstyles.
The Apostle Paul gives us an reminder that the Old Testament was designed to lead us towards Jesus, and since Jesus was crucified for our sins we are no longer bound under that law. In order to have a strong relationship with God we must have trust in Jesus' death, and not in those previous laws.

I personally believe that you can receive a tattoo and still hold Jesus in your heart. Depending on what the tattoo depicts and where you place it on your body can also help you decided whether or not God would approve. Surely getting pagan symbols and any other object or saying that is disrespectful to God is a horrid choice and may in fact make your tattoo become one that could fall under the category of what the Old Testament speaks out on. Although we aren't bound by those laws there should always be a level of respect that you have for yourself and what you do with the body God has given you.

A tattoo can become a evaligising tool and help you reach out to people. It can also be the permanent sign that you are with God and a constant reminder that he is with you.
If you still have doubts then simply do not get one. If you plan on going through with receiving a tattoo, please remember to:
Make sure what you get brings God glory
Make sure it will not bring you shame in the future
Make sure you will be able to have the support of your parents as going against their wishes would be defying God.

Hopefully this has helped you see the possibilities on this subject.

God Bless,

Allison Jones