CalvaryAdvisor

Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, but always personal have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.

Tattoos and piercing during the Old Testament days were done in pagan tradition and to mark slaves. Under the law in the Old Testament people were instructed in Leviticus 19:28, " You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD." Though we no longer live under the law of the Old Testament, many question if this now justifies various piercing in the flesh if not done out of pagan tradition.

The etymology of the word comes from the Tahitian word “tatu” which means to mark something; seems to be the distant ancestor of the modern word “tattoo”. Many different civilizations in the past and few in the current world have been performing the practice of coloring their body part for different reasons.  In few groups or religions, tattoo is an integral part of their religion and each person following the religion is required to have that tattoo mark on their body symbolizing the person authority as a group member. Even modern day gangs are seen to have a particular mark on their shoulders, head, or in any part of their bodies signifying their group name.

In Exodus 21:6 the Bible tells us if a servant wanted to remain servant to his master he would have his ear pierced as recognition that he will be so forever. In Genesis chapter 35 Jacob was told to "put away the foreign gods" among the people and to cleanse themselves. In verse 4 this included taking out their earrings from their ears.

God gave this command to the Israelites around 1444 B.C. (right after the parting of the Red Sea) to forbid them from practicing the idolatrous customs they'd picked up in Egyptian captivity. Their captors had a nasty habit of slashing themselves to express grief and to appease their pantheon of imaginary gods. The Egyptians also tattooed their bodies with symbols of pagan gods. So Jehovah, the only true God, essentially said to the Israelites, I don't want you to practice those ridiculous superstitions anymore. You're my people, and I love you. The heart of God's message isn't about body art, but about reminding the Israelites that they belong to him.

If Christians today adhered to the literal application of every moral and ceremonial rule handed down to the Israelites, no one could eat shrimp or cheeseburgers (Leviticus 11); mothers would be "unclean" after childbirth (40 days of separation from society after a boy, twice as long after a girl), (Leviticus 12); menstruating women also would have to separate from friends and family for seven days during that time of month (Leviticus 15); no one could wear clothes woven from both linen and wool (Leviticus 19); and everyone who went out to eat after church could merit a possible stoning (Exodus 31).