To tattoo or not tattoo, that is the question.................
Tattoos are a really good idea.
They give the monkey-see/monkey-do crowd a means of self-identifying so normal people can avoid them.
I always took that verse to be referring to making marks by cutting yourself, not tattoos. I don’t like tattoos, but I never thought of them as forbidden.
Tattoos are definitely the mark of low class self-mutilation. Trashy.
nothing worse than seeing a pretty girl with a tattoo. Instant turn off.
If God wanted us to be able to camouflage standing in front of a wall of graffiti, we would have been born that way.
IMO, if God commanded it for Israel, unless there is a specific reason, it’s probably a preference God has, that could logically be extended to everyone. The dietary kosher laws had a specific reason to separate Israel from other nations. Tattoos...don’t know.
But if our bodies are temples of God and God designed them, I think we need to think twice before permanently altering them. I hardly ever see a tattoo without thinking, that person would look better without that.
And then of course the effects of aging, dolphins turning into killer whales, unicorns with age spots, mermaids with wrinkles, etc.
All tattoos should be temporary so you can play find the tattoo more than once.
Exodus Chapter 21 1 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Ye shall not suffer to be marked as a slave, but rather as free men and women of God.
Ping!......................
Perhaps tattoos are visible and indelible expressions of the profound impressions that idols have made on one’s heart.
If in any doubt, do what God says.
What I read is pretty much what is reported here, that the remarks on tattoos were related to idol worship and to enslavement. The tattoo, I was contemplating was to commemorate my Camino Pilgrimage from Pamplona, Spain, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain
I always thought tattoos were pagan identification stamps. They are good,however, for police identification
Paul said that our body is a "Temple of the Holy Spirit".
If that is so, then, obviously, marking it up is ill-advised.
But marks are forbidden in one or more of the first five books of the Old Testament.
The other thing is the themes of the tattoos are almost always evil, promoting satanism, perversion, drug culture, or just nonsense/nihilistic designs.
Tattoos scandalize (i.e., freak out and frighten) children, and in part they are designed to offend them and all adults who see them.
It isn't rocket science.
People who can't grasp the above have a real IQ problem, IMHO.
A few years ago, I had a colonoscopy and they removed a rather large polyp which looked suspicious. In order to go back to that precise location again for future surveillance, they put a tattoo around it. I can certainly see the logic in doing that. I have no other tattoos, nor do I have a desire to have any.
This was under law, not grace. I don’t like tattoos and have none, but having a tattoo today has nothing to do with salvation by grace.
The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
In other words, as far as tatoos on the body fearfully and wonderfully made? well.........who would put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?
Ping
That leaves us with the moral law, which did not disappear with the sacrifice of Jesus. The next question is to what extent the moral law carries into the church age. If you hold to a dispensational view of scripture, you believe that only if the aspects of the moral law were ratified in the Gospels and Epistles are they applicable to the church in the present age. For example, Jesus and Paul confirmed Old Testament teachings on matters such as theft, sexual morality, and honoring your parents. On the other hand, they did not confirm the aspects of the moral law such as keeping the Sabbath in the manner the Jews did. If the New Testament did not confirm such aspects the moral law as prohibition against tattoos or cremation, it may be considered not covered by the New Covenant.
While these aspects are not covered in the Epistles or the Gospels, the Apostle Paul did state that the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, defacing the body with tattoos or piercings violates the concept of being such a temple. It also could be argued that cremation represents a violation of the concept of the body as a temple. However, all human bodies will decay as a matter of nature. Some argue that deliberate cremation is a denial of the bodily restoration of the deceased in Christ that will occur in the end times.