Albert Einstein
Posted on 11/01/2013 8:21:51 AM PDT by DouglasKC
The Truth about Tattoos
I had written a hub earlier on 'The Dangers of Tattoos' - which was from purely a medical point of view. The present article is more comprehensive, and should enlighten the open-minded reader about the 'dark truths' behind tattoos.
Historical Aspect
History shows that tattoos have always been associated with paganism, shamanism, heathen (Baal worship), occult mysticism and demonism. The tattoo has never been associated with Christians, until the present decadent religious times. Wherever the Christian faith made its entrance, the tattoo made its exit.
Tattoos where associated with shamans or magic-men (witch-doctors). A shaman is an intermediary between the natural and the supernatural worlds, who is in direct contact with spirits who are invariably evil. Tattooing was often a magical rite, linked to scarification and blood-letting, and the tattooing process involved complex rituals and taboos, known only to the shaman and his tribe. In tattooing the skin is punctured and the blood is drawn. Licking the blood during tattoo operations is not unknown. The puncturing was considered the ‘opening of inlets for evil to enter’. Tattoos were therefore channels for demonic possession. Even today, certain tattoo artists burn incense and light candles during tattoo operations, while others allow ‘demons to guide the tattoo needle over the client’s body’.
Tattoos have always reflected a note of unabashed rebellion and marked deviancy. Hence tattoos were used to mark criminals, adulterers, traitors, deserters, the deviant and the outcast. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans did not tattoo themselves, but they branded slaves and criminals with tattoos. The Latin word for ‘tattoo’ is ‘stigma’ – which is a distinguishing mark cut into the flesh of a slave or a criminal, and was considered a mark of disgrace or reproach. By the early 1900s public opinion against tattoos was so strong that tattooed persons were considered freaks and found mostly in sideshows and circuses.
The Psychological Aspect
It has been observed that criminals, drug addicts, sex perverts and social outlaws are the overwhelming majority of the tattooed. Hard rock bands sport sick and lewd tattoos. Gangs encourage tattoos to instill a sense of ‘belonging’. Tattoos carry a streak of aggression and anti-establishmentarianism and are subversive of morality. Death (inclusive of skulls, snakes, demons, flames) and pornography (lewd pictures, nude figures) are popular themes of tattoos. Psychologists have considered tattoos to be marks of personality disorder which is manifested later in criminal behavior. Low self-esteem, lack of self-control, sadomasochism, bondage, fetishism, bisexuality, antisocial personality, mania and bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia – are reflected in self-inflicted multiple tattoos. Studies have linked tattoos to homosexuality, lesbianism and gross sexual perversion.
Tattooed youth are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse, take to alcohol and drugs, and exhibit violent behavior, and drop out of high school – by as much as 4 times compared to non-tattooed youth.
The Christian Aspect
Carnal Christians side-step the injuction in Leviticus 19;28 by arguing that the commandment is for Old Testament Israel and not for New Testament Christians. Does that mean that bestiality and child sacrifice which are forbidden in Leviticus are for Old Testament Israel and not for New Testament Christians? The New Testament does not have to spell out all sins. Smoking, for instance, is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere; but does it mean that smoking is not a vice or sin?
Reputed Bible scholars and commentators have made in clear that the moral commandments in Leviticus are for all time and not just for Israel in the Old Testament age. Leviticus 19:28 says, ‘You shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. I am the LORD.’ On this Matthew Henry, Merrill Unger and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown have made it amply clear that tattoos are forbidden by God. It is to be noted that while ‘cuttings’ are qualified by the phrase ‘for the dead’, ‘marks’ (or tattoos) have no such qualification. Which means that all tattoos (Christian and otherwise) are evil in God’s eyes.
One of the arguments made by carnal Christians is that Lev 19.27 forbids haircuts. What Leviticus 19.27 is talking about is ‘rounding the corners of your head’ and ‘marring the corners of your beard’. These were heathen practices. One such practice was to cut the hair so that the head resembled a celestial globe. It is called a ‘tonsure’, a practice of heathens to honor their gods. The cutting of the flesh was demonstrated by the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It is not to be forgotten that the demon-possessed man in Mark 5 was in the habit of cutting himself with stones. Cutting and masochistic self-flagellation is also practiced by Muslims during their festival of Muharram. In short, the injunctions in Lev 19:26-28 are a strong condemnation of heathen practices – witchcraft, astrology, cutting, tattooing, tonsures, etc.
In 1 Samuel 15:23 we are told that ‘rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft’. Tattoos sported by today’s youth have been the mark of rebellion and hatred of authority (besides, rejection of all moral values). In God’s eyes, the sin of tattooing is like witch-craft. We have already seen the origins of tattoos in witch-craft and shamanism. It remains to be researched whether this ‘witch-craft’ has also led to widespread demon-possession. No, tattoos are not ‘body decoration’; they have nothing to do with fashion and beauty; but rather they are sinister signs of moral decay and infiltration by evil spirits into modern society.
The Lord DOES specify so. Did he say to only reach out to pretty, sane, and 'worthy' people?
BTW, I do not smoke anything.
Yes, of course I did, because it is true.
I digress, a ham or turkey is on the menu. Probably both.
“We all know why most smokers don’t/can’t quit, it is one reason that we see it as a weakness”....
I don’t believe that but you are certainly free to think that and quote any researcher to support your opinion.
The facts are people are still choosing to smoke and has nothing to do with weakness...rather the choice they are making...and they are free to enjoy it as well.
Perhaps you’re seeing it from the wrong perspective..... some who are overweight continue to eat because they enjoy it....smoking is like that for some...in fact far more than you would want to admit to.
Ask why
“We all know why most smokers don’t/can’t quit, it is one reason that we see it as a weakness.”
Haven’t disagreed with you on simply stating things but not sure about this.
Some people like to smoke when they go to a bar and it’s been controversial to force bars in many places to be smokeless.
I’d see smoking as in many cases being an addiction certainly not as a weakness, to say of someone who smokes, “oh, they have a weakness.”
Adding to that, it still isn’t that long ago when smoking was not frowned on.
As I said earlier, there are still a number of people who smoke, I don’t. And the E-cigarettes have been popular.
Because folks are poor doesn’t make them likely to smoke.
I have never known anyone, including any smoker that did not know that quitting cigarettes is very difficult, more difficult for women than for men for example.
The next time you are around a smoker, casually ask them if they have ever tried to quit smoking.
Albert Einstein
Sorry, but every study does show that the poor and uneducated are the most likely smokers.
Why would they want to quit?
I have been poor and am certainly uneducated. I don’t smoke.
Explain
What does that have to do with this 2013 conversation?
When I was in the Army, the United States government supplied my cigarettes for free.
Did you ask for them?
Well there you have it...nobody is harder on smokers than former smokers.
Former smokers need to understand that there isn’t a smoker out there who hasn’t already heard it all..as well as all the arguments..... Why former smokers persist to engage people about doing something they are free to choose to do is beside me...let them alone ....and stop imposing your “regulations” on those who are fully aware of all the so called statistics. They don’t need to be educated about smoking.
***It is to be noted that while ‘cuttings’ are qualified by the phrase ‘for the dead’***
Cutting one’s flesh was often done to mourn for the dead in various cultures..
The American Indian often cut themselves to mourn for the dead even to the point of cutting off fingers.
Charlie Russell did a painting of this entitled “Her heart is on the ground”, while Andrew Garcia told how his Indian woman cut herself to mourn, some of the slices being a half inch deep.
In general what's on the inside is generated on the outside though...catch someone robbing a store and it's certain THOUGHT about robbing that store long before he did it...
Well technically the laws of Christ were given for the children of Israel...and those who join themselves to the children of Israel.
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