Poll: Tattoo art - Christian perspectives: Fight it? Ignore it? appreciate/embrace it?

[Addy]

Also....not bad sometimes to have threads that are politics-free zones, right...?

Absolutely....

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. ~Philippians 4:8-12

 

[farouk]

While some readers fee the poll has run its course, if you don't think so, and if you have not yet voted, please vote now!

Thanks to all who voted in the poll so far!

 

[Addy]

@farouk If this thread brings you joy.... I say.... CONTINUE... and ignore the nay sayers.
God Bless you.

 

[farouk]

Yes I can't think of a better way to talk to those that get tattooed, and those giving the tattooes.

@soul man I think you guys were all in Las Vegas for a special occasion. It would be good maybe if in a place like Vegas there were tattoo parlors with a Christian ethos; imagine all the opportunities, contrasting with some of the other sorts of shows and things there.

Like @Heart2Soul says,

Maybe they will start having Bible studies in the parlors as well...

I saw this short video about a Christian-run tattoo parlor; it's not in Vegas (I don't think) but Vegas would I guess be in some ways an ideal place to have one.

 

[JohnDB]

Present your holy bodies?
Pure?

Encouraging more tattoos...some other schmucks artwork doesn't do that.

 

[farouk]

There was a guy who was tattooed all over -

@Pearl Actually there can sometimes be quite a disconnect between the sometimes 'over the top' ink that you see and the real person underneath...

(Though if effective witness ink - Bible quote/ref., etc. really relates to the testimony of the person underneath, it can be good, too...)

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl Actually there can sometimes be quite a disconnect between the sometimes 'over the top' ink that you see and the real person underneath...

(Though if effective witness ink - Bible quote/ref., etc. really relates to the testimony of the person underneath, it can be good, too...)

He was called Adrian and was a musician. He played the Northumberland pipes.

 

[farouk]

He was called Adrian and was a musician. He played the Northumberland pipes.

@Pearl That's interesting; I think Northumberland pipes are a bit like Scottish bagpipes, right?

Yes, many men and women in music and art become tattooed; now it's so widespread it's not necessarily a key to creativeness, of course.

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl That's interesting; I think Northumberland pipes are a bit like Scottish bagpipes, right?

Yes, many men and women in music and art become tattooed; now it's so widespread it's not necessarily a key to creativeness, of course.

A bit like bagpipes. He did tell me the difference once but I've forgotten.

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl They do work sometimes as a motif for ink:

facebook

Horrible.

 

[Pearl]

Life does not revolve around tattoos.

 

[farouk]

I think a lot of older people (and I'm not young to begin with lol) still think that tattoos are this grungy, rough, male trend.

@UnrulyBeauty Untrue.

 

[atpollard]

@atpollard PS: Feel free to vote in the poll, above; there is quite a comprehensive set of response options and more than one vote is possible... :)

So I voted.
Since I did, it seemed appropriate to offer a BIBLICAL response rather than just what “feels right to me” (Judges 17:6).

So the famous (infamous) verse about tattoos:

[Leviticus 19:28 NASB] 'You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

On the one hand, this is CLEARLY a point of the OT Law (and we gentile believers of the NT are not bound by the Law ... see Acts 15:22-29). So from that principle I find no reason to believe that tattoos are universally forbidden. They are one of many foolish things that people are permitted to do ... like shaving half your head into a Mohawk and dying it purple.

On the other hand, the actual Law was written for a purpose and to teach a lesson. The world remembered its dead by cutting or inking their body to carry the memory of the lost soul with them. God calls us to not be and think like the world. Those that have died before us are not gone. We shall join them. However I know many people, Christian and non Christian that choose to mark the passage of a loved one with a tattoo ... often a name or a butterfly. For a Christian, this seems to me to be walking VERY CLOSE to exactly what God did not want His People to be doing and specifically forbid them to do. Even if permissible, I would have to wonder why a Christian would want to mark themself for the dead knowing that the act displeases God enough to make a law forbidding it.

I am god to no one and no one is MY servant, so all should pray and follow their own conscience and answer to their own master. I have shared what the Bible says and how I understand what it says. I have discharged my duty. My conscience is clear.

 

[farouk]

Absolutely....

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. ~Philippians 4:8-12

@Adoration

That's a really nice verse! :)

I see that @atpollard , above, is skeptical.

@atpollard Thank-you, Sir, for your comment; appreciated.

 

[farouk]

Horrible.

@Pearl Deleted it...(maybe it wasn't very effective... :) )

 

[amadeus]

@Pearl Deleted it...(maybe it wasn't very effective... :) )

Thank God for small mercies!

 

[farouk]

I would love to get a few more before I'm old and wrinkly

@UnrulyBeauty So, seems like you don't have any tattoo regrets so far? :)

 

[farouk]

Life does not revolve around tattoos.

@Pearl Oh, you're right! some ppl do do it tastefully, modestly. (As you know.) Some are faith based, etc.

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl Oh, you're right! some ppl do do it tastefully, modestly. (As you know.) Some are faith based, etc.

I have never been interested in tattoos. Not ever.

 

[farouk]

You can't just be a bit of a legalist... It's like being sort of pregnant... LOL.

@Adoration A good way of putting it! :)