Last weekend was my grandmother’s birthday, so we went back up north (north Mississippi, I mean) to visit the fam. Amory is where I grew up, and where The Wife and I spent the first 5.5 years of marriage. So it’s good to be back around, but sometimes I’m glad I’m not there anymore…if that makes any sense.
But we ran by the small town Christian bookstore while we were there. The kind of store that has most of the current best selling books and music, but also tons of what I call “Jesus Junk” too. The lady that was working that day actually taught me in preschool some 30ish years ago. Very nice lady.
As we talked she asked about a girl that I knew a long way back. I’ve no idea where the girl is now, but she commented that she always seemed to be a sad child. But that someone said they saw here a couple of years ago waiting tables in Tupelo, MS. Then her tone changed and she said, “…and she had all kinds of…piercing and stuff,” and said it in a minor key tone of voice. Because everyone in Jesus Junk stores knows that piercings and tattoos are signs of something wrong with our spirit, right?
But then again, I think that those implications are in large part just a product of the Southern Culture. Sure, we can think of examples and people we know from here that are not depressed or “hurting” and have tats and piercings. But I guess it’s just a stereotype. But elsewhere it’s quite common and/or celebrated.
Los is about to get to be on reality TV with getting tattooed. If I lived in a different region, or worked at a different place would I get a tattoo? Not sure, but I’m probably not signing up for anything just yet. But what about you? Why have you (or why have you not) gotten a tattoo? Would you consider it? Do you consider it a sin (as some people do) or no?
I remember coming home from a weekend in Memphis, wearing a small, fake “decal” tattoo on my shoulder. When my (early) teenage son saw it and thought it was real, he said, “What did you do, get drunk or something?” I suppose that ended any thoughts I had entertained about possibly having a tiny butterfly tattooed onto my shoulder blade or hip. (I didn’t want to be an embarassment to my son.)
A man recently complained to me about the youth director of his church having tattoos, saying it made her unworthy of the position and a bad example to her youth group members. I have seen those tattoos of hers; they are small and barely noticable but, to him, it was a sign of “her demons coming out”.
To me, tattoos and piercings (I have pierced ears.) are a matter of personal choice. I don’t like large tattoos or multiple piercings in what I consider odd places, so I don’t have them; but I don’t condemn others for having made other choices.
See Leviticus 19:28 for the only biblical reference I know of regarding tattoos.
g’s first paragraph is funny stuff…
I am getting ONE and only one when i get ripped… cause after all, they’re just not cool unless you have muscles… so my wife is getting used to the idea… it will be on my left bicep and it will have some cool ticket stub looking things and say “Welcome to the Gun Show!” … not so much… actually it will be some version of the icthus / IXOYE.
and if it is a sin, i guess you can’t be forgiven of it unless you get it removed? i dunno how that works…
http://www.religioustattoos.net/
@g: Well…were you drunk or something?
@j-dub: I kinda like the “gun show” idea. Problem is that when you get old and flabby you’d have to have it changed up or something.
Something.
The Lev. verse must be taken into context. please read all the other laws it requires. 🙂
i have 3. all three are personal and have very deep meaning. ok, two do. one was…another story. but the two that do..is hebrew for “perfect love” on my leg, the front of it, like ankle to ankle, about 3″x1″. because fear is something i battle with all the time. perfect love casts out fear.
i also have the word grace in my friend’s handwriting on the inside of my wrist. it’s maybe 1’x.5″…because…i have received it much…and need to learn to give it more….
the other one can only be shared in a f2f convo. i refuse to post it out on the net!!!
@Anne, I myself, don’t consider it a sin, and there is a bit of attraction to the idea of a tattoo sometimes, but it’s the permanence of it that holds me back. As I walked around Six Flags over TX yesterday I saw more tattoos in a few hours than I had in a long while at a “regular” place. But lots were just roses or spiderwebs or something. I did see some names, some pentagrams, and one guy had “white power” in a homemade tattoo across the back of his neck (like he had someone do it w/ a needle and an ink pen).
If I were to ever get one, I’d want it to be symbolic and personal as well. I like the remembrances that yours bring to you. And if I ever run into you, you can tell me about the 3rd one.
Regarding Leviticus: I was just saying that it is the only biblical reference to tattoos that I am aware of, not that those old and numerous — and some, seemingly outrageous — laws still stand. 🙂 to Anne J.