Christianity and the Tattoo Phenomenon (a social satire essay)
I
dare you, just do it. Walk down a busy street and count how many people you see
who do not have a tattoo. And when you think you have spotted a person lacking one,
without embarrassment ask them, “Excuse me, but I’m curious if you happen to
contain a tattoo on your person?” I bet you the answer you will receive will be
a positively “YES!” or maybe a more hesitate, “Uhmm yeahh??” Nevertheless, the
majority of people today contain at least one tattoo. I am curious to know if
we have asked ourselves, “Why?” What is it with our culture desiring to mark
our bodies? Now, take a walk into your local church, mega church, mini church,
you name it, walk in it. Do you see a difference? I certainly have not. It
seems to me this tattoo fad has also permeated the church culture. The popularity of tattoos has increased,
even among evangelical Christians who claim their main reason to get one is to
be a witness for Christ. Is it necessary to receive a tattoo in order to be a
witness for Christ? Especially when there is a possibility that tattoos will
end up just being another social fad which fades?
Tattoos
have been around since mankind has been on the earth. An article on
Smithsonian.com dates some of the earliest tattoos back to 2000 B.C. These
tattoos were
found on several female Egyptian mummies. However in 1991,
excavators found an Iceman who appeared to have multiple tattoos and was dated
back to 5,200 B.C. (“Tattoos” 2007, para. 4). Professor Don Brothwell of the
University of York believes that during this time people received tattoos for
therapeutic reasons. He believes this because of the location of the tattoos on
the Iceman’s body; tattooed dots around his “right knee, lower spine and ankle
joints” (“Tattoos” 2007, para. 5).
How is
it that the human race’s view of tattoos has changed so drastically? They
started out as a therapeutic procedure and now are viewed as a fashion style?
When I was in high school it was a rare thing to come across someone who did
not have a tattoo or someone who was not planning their own personal body art
to be imprinted on themselves. These
individuals never took the time to stop and ask themselves any future based
questions. “Will I like this ten years from now? “What will this look like
twenty years from now?” or “How will other adults perceive a 40 year old man
with a tattoo across his neck that reads, “Live fast, die fun”? No, the idea of
getting a tattoo was all about the present. How do I feel right now? Who am I
right now? What is currently going on in my life? Some people get tattoos for
personal and sentimental reasons, the questions in that case becomes “Who has
affected me the most at this point in my life?” “What has made the biggest
impact on my life thus far?” These questions bring out one of the basic reasons
why getting a tattoo is flawed: people change, tattoos don’t.
My
personal preferences today are different than what they were eight years ago
and what they will be ten years from now. I thank God that I wasn’t allowed to
get a tattoo when I was obsessed with drawing the nautical star and broken
hearts. Huffingpost.com researched the rise of tattoo removal, from 2011-2012
it increased 32%. Are we really surprised?
I am
also grateful for my low toleration for pain; because of it I’m glad to say I
am tattoo free. Currently in our society this would make me unique. Before an
individual would stand out because of their tattoo, now it is just the opposite.
Tattoos are a way to express ourselves to the world, to show our individuality
and how we are different, how we are set apart. For me however, I will pass on
being unique and three to fifteen fine needles puncturing my skin 150 times a
second. Just think if it as sowing, without the thread! (“The rise and rise of
the tattoo” 2010, para. 3)
As a
Christian, I can expect this tattoo phenomenon from the world, pain for
pleasure, having your own identity and wanting it to stand out. However what
puzzles me is how popular tattoos are among Christians. Now, if you are a
Christian reading this, I bet you five dollars and my high school nautical star
drawings that you are thinking, “Are you saying Christians aren’t allowed to
get a tattoo?! Nowhere in the Bible does it say we can’t get a tattoo!” Why is
it that many Christians look at Christianity as list of what we can and cannot
do? I am not saying that Christians are not allowed to get their precious Jesus
tattoos, what I am asking is, why
would a true Christian want to get a tattoo?
Mayo
Clinic.com briefly goes over how a tattoo is performed:
A
tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with pigments inserted
through pricks into the skin's top layer. Typically, the tattoo artist uses a
hand-held machine that acts much like a sewing machine, with one or more
needles piercing the skin repeatedly. With every puncture, the needles insert
tiny ink droplets. The process — which is done without anesthetics — causes a
small amount of bleeding and slight to potentially significant pain (“Tattoos:
Understand risks and precautions”, para. 3).
Am I the only one who finds
it extremely odd that Christians are okay with having a needle
puncture their
skin, bleed, have ink inserted into the skin and be in extreme pain while this
is happening? But maybe, that is why God gave us skin, to draw all of it,
right? Oh, I know, it is okay because you thought long and hard about it. I
guess we should just pretend that our body is a canvas that we purchased at
Wal-Mart.
The
motivation for getting a tattoo makes this even more absurd. The Christians who
get tattoos endure the pain for themselves, for future pleasure. This is mind
blowing to me because at the very root of being a Christian is the teaching
that we are to deny ourselves. Why would I get a tattoo for myself and to show
others that I am different when the Bible teaches to deny our flesh and our
lusts? 1 John 2:15-17 says,
“Do not love the world nor the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The
world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God
lives forever.”
Tattoos are the lust of the
world. Why would I pursue something that is not from the Father?
The bottom line is that as Christians we have to remember that we do not own our body and our life is not our own. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Everything we do, including getting a tattoo should be for Jesus and should be done in the name of Jesus (Colossians 3:17).
Photo retrieved from: http://ndebon.com/christian-tattoo-ideas/christian-tattoo-quotes/
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