Posted on 07/28/2008 6:34:51 AM PDT by WilliamReading
BOCA RATON — Mo Brenner is taking Jewish pride to a new and controversial level.
The 27-year-old Boca Raton tattoo artist boasts a large Star of David on his upper right arm engraved with Abram, his Hebrew name.
He'll gladly sketch Hebrew writing and Jewish stars on his clients at Boca Body Art, because what could possibly be a better way to celebrate religion than with a shrine that will last a lifetime?
"A tattoo should really mean something to you," Brenner said. "Mine represents my religion and family."
With the tattoo phenomenon continuing to explode - 40 percent of people between the ages of 26 to 40 have at least one tattoo, according to the Pew Research Center - some Jews don't want to be left out.
But it's a contradiction for a religion that most believe forbids tattoos. Perhaps even more stinging, millions of Jews were forcibly tattooed during the Holocaust.
"I was always taught that nice Jewish people didn't do that," said 40-year-old Boca resident Amy Lubetkin. "When I think of tattoos, I think of the Holocaust and how tattooing of all these Jewish people was another way to take away their identity, take away from who they were."
Bruce Ratoff, a 55-year-old Boca resident, considers himself an only moderately observant Jew, yet there are certain lines he refuses to cross.
"Tattoos are a permanent mutilation and thus a direct violation of Jewish law," Ratoff said. "The Nazis were aware of this - it was a deliberate desecration when they tattooed concentration camp inmates. Why then should we deliberately choose to desecrate ourselves? I find this trend most disturbing."
Strangely enough, this is one of the reasons that younger Jews, like 18-year-old Alexis Engelhardt of West Palm Beach, are heading to tattoo parlors.
Engelhardt's grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, so he considered having "remember" tattooed on his forearm in Hebrew.
Ultimately he decided against it because he didn't want such a visible tattoo to hurt his chances at future employment. Instead, he modified a common tattoo of surfers - nautical stars at the front of the hips - using two Jewish stars.
"My parents were kind of upset when they found out, and so was my grandma, but it isn't that big of a deal," Engelhardt said. "I think you should take religion as more of a guideline instead of just rules saying this is how you should live. I think banning tattoos is a little bit ancient, and we're kind of past that."
Tattoo artist Brenner, the great-grandson of Jews caught up in the Holocaust, is thinking about adding yellow coloring to the Star of David on his arm.
Jewish people were forced to wear yellow stars and badges in Nazi Germany.
"I want to represent what they went through," Brenner said.
It's an argument that puzzles orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Uminer of the Chabad Jewish Center of Martin and St. Lucie Counties.
"That memory is not a good memory," Uminer said. "The memory of the Holocaust, that terrible act of barbarism that happened while the whole world watched and was quiet, is not something of remembrance. We shouldn't forget, but if you want to be clear that you're Jewish, wear a yarmulke (the traditional Jewish skullcap) on your head.
"How can you care about your religion when you disobey it (by getting a tattoo)? It just doesn't work."
Anthony Fratello, the Reform rabbi of Temple Shaarei Shalom in Boynton Beach, said he has very mixed emotions about tattoos on Jewish people.
He believes that the biblical text barring tattoos is "a bit vague" and that the real stigma these days stems from the Holocaust.
He's heard of people tattooing exact replicas of the numbers that were tattooed on the forearms of their relatives in concentration camps.
"There are those who see it as a way to reconnect with people that perished in the Holocaust, and I can see both sides of the argument," Fratello said.
However, he believes there is something sacred about keeping the body unmarked.
"I think there's a great deal that we can learn from the traditional perspective to say that it's your body, and God gave it you to take care of," Fratello said.
Many Jews have been reluctant to get tattoos because of a long-standing belief that the deceased can't be buried in Jewish cemeteries if they are tattooed.
However, even Orthodox rabbis like Uminer say that's a myth.
The Star of David of the Palm Beaches cemetery in West Palm Beach has no policy regarding tattoos, and Mount Sinai Memorial Park - an Orthodox cemetery in Miami - doesn't have its employees view the body before it is buried.
Once Ann Pardes of Boca Raton learned that prohibiting tattooed Jews from being buried was "just an old wives' tale," she permitted her son to get a tattoo in remembrance of his grandmother.
"I couldn't say no," Pardes said. "I thought it was for a very good reason, and it's a beautiful tattoo in memory of my mom. I'm even considering getting one myself."
Still, don't expect all Jewish people to go against a tattoo-forbidding mantra passed on for thousands of years.
"Every place I look, every movie star, every rock star, every athlete has tattoos, so I'm not surprised at this trend," Lubetkin said. "But I'm still going to instill in my children that Jewish people don't get tattoos. When my son was as young as 4 and he'd see somebody with a tattoo, he'd say, 'Mommy, that person's not Jewish.'"
I have a few balck co-workers whho are tattooed.
Look at a lot of the NBA and NFL players they have tattoos.
Moses and the Ten Guidelines!
Moral instruction from Pirates of the Caribbean...
Lol...my head still hurts from last week!
THIS is the heart of his problem. He wants to come across as religious but he has tailored his observance of his religion to fit his own wants. Personally I don't like to see tattoos on anyone. That being said, only son will graduate the USNA this coming spring and will be going Marines. He has said he may get a tattoo of the Marine symbol with his blood type below. He's as Conservative as you can be so what am I to do??
Sounds scrumptious. I shall have to try one.
let me know when you come up with a graphic.
I'll set up the list later today on my about page so all of the tattooed people have access if they see a thread.
Is he Jewish? The only thing you can do is express your disapproval in a convincing way. Then it is hands off.
ok, do we want a cool tat pic or a sarcastic trailer park/bar & grille type pic?
I vote for a two part sign, with a sarcastic “Trailer Park, Grill and Biker Bar” portion at the top, and a small “Tattoo” sign below it.
Thanks.
All in bright, gaudy neon, of course.
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If you're going to ignore the law and get a tatoo fine, but it's a bit disingenuous to pretend it's not clear.
As often as these tatoo threads come up, and reference Leviticus 19:28, I am puzzled that there are not threads devoted to 19:19 “Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you. “
Tatoos really seem to get some folks fired up, while wool blends not so much, and yet, there they are, given equal emphasis in chap 19.
Perhaps the Jewish proscription of tattoos stems, at least in part, from the medical fact that tattooing, until not long ago, was associated with a risk of contracting hepatitis and other infections.
sarcasm is good since we get called such horrible names...
A couple of decades ago, my then girlfriend was of uncommon beauty. I’d just gotten a memorial tattoo which she couldn’t get her head around. Although she was not observant, her Jewish mother had instilled in her the belief that her body was to be unmarked. She was the only girl I’d met who’d never had her ears pierced. Back then, it seemed like every girl automatically got her ears pierced when they hit middle-school. Now, it seems like half the kids in my daughter’s kindergarten class have their ears pierced. As a 40-something dad, I’m just well on my way to being perpetually uncool...
Tattooed Freepers...if we ever get a band going, I think we know the name! I’d write more, but being the ho and convict that I surely must be to have one, I must have a corner to stand on or a car to jack....
ROTFLMAO.....I guess i should leave the law office and stand on the corner with you.
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