What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos?
Taboo tattoos
Torah Scroll. What is said about tattoos in the Bible? Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, prohibits them without giving an explicit reason. Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos? Photo: “Open Torah and Pointer” by Lawrie Cate is licensed under CC-by-SA-2.0.
What does the Bible say about tattoos?
Leviticus 19:28 says, “You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Although this passage clearly prohibits tattoos, it does not give an explicit reason why. This begs the question: Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos?
In his Biblical Views column “Unholy Ink: What Does the Bible Say about Tattoos?” Mark W. Chavalas, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, examines the taboo on tattoos in the Bible. Not only does he analyze traditional explanations for this prohibition, but he also investigates what tattoos signified to ancient Near Eastern peoples, including the ancient Israelites, which suggests the real reason why tattoos were taboo.
Leviticus 19 denounces idolatry and several pagan mourning practices. Some have thought that because of the proximity of the taboo on tattoos to the prohibition of other pagan mourning practices in Leviticus, tattooing must have been a pagan mourning practice. However, we find no evidence of this in ancient texts from the Levant, Mesopotamia or Egypt. As far as we can tell, tattooing was not an ancient mourning practice in these cultures.
This is not to give the impression that tattooing never appears in ancient Near Eastern texts; it does—just not as a mourning practice. In the ancient Near East, tattoos were used to mark slaves. Often the name of a slave’s owner would be tattooed or branded on his hand or forehead. If then the slave were to run away, he could be easily returned to his master. Thus, tattooing was seen as a sign of ownership.
Chavalas thinks that this might be behind the taboo on tattoos in the Bible:
“Tattooing, an insignia of ownership, was perhaps condemned in Leviticus because it reminded them [the Israelites] of their past. After all, they had just spent the last four centuries as slaves in Egypt, where tattooing was also used as a sign of slavery. No longer considered slaves, the Israelites now were prohibited to mark their bodies with permanent signs of servitude to former masters. This did not have to be explicitly articled to them; no one need ask prison inmates why they shed their orange jumpsuits when they are no longer incarcerated.”
Chavalas also notes that there might be a positive reference to tattoos in the Bible. Isaiah 44:5 reads:
This one will say, “I am the LORD’s,”
another will be called by the name of Jacob,
yet another will write on the hand, “The LORD’s,”
and adopt the name of Israel.
By writing God’s name on his hand, the Israelite in Isaiah 44:5 “was willingly proposing to become a servant of God.” At least in this case, it seems that tattooing was acceptable because the person was marking himself as belonging to the God of Israel.
To learn more about tattoos in the Bible, read Mark Chavalas’s full column “Unholy Ink: What Does the Bible Say about Tattoos?” in the November/December 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Subscribers: Read the full Biblical Views column “Unholy Ink: What Does the Bible Say about Tattoos?” by Mark Chavalas in the November/December 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on October 31, 2016.
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The passage from Isaiah 44:5, read literally, simply means that a person has inscribed WITH, not ON, their hand that they belong to Yah. It doesn’t use the same language as when referring to a tattoo. And the mention in Revelation 19:16 about a name being on Jesus’ thigh has only in our contemporary culture been thought of as a tattoo. Most commentators understood and explained that the name was written on either clothing or a sword on the thigh of Jesus, not his bare skin.
I do agree with the writer, however, that the tattoo makes more sense when viewed as a branding of ownership rather than simply a mourning ritual. However, God doesn’t need tattoos to brand his servants. Several other signs were in place to make that distinction: circumcision, tallit, and in the case of literal servants, piercing a person’s ear with an awl, to name a few. Overall, the entirety of Torah was meant to distinguish who was God’s and who wasn’t.
I have a suggestion, why don’t we quit trying to be like the nations and just do what He says? He is who we are supposed to please, correct? Not the other way around. How would you like it if someone said, ” You’re putting too many restrictions upon me, I know what I want and what’s the best for my life, hey I give You maybe an hour each weekend!” He said what behavior, what time He has set aside for us to meet with Him, how to distinguish ourselves from the nations so that they can say ” what an awesome God you serve”. Wake up and smell the coffee, older, newer He doesn’t change, He’s the same yesterday today and guess what, tomorrow.
Be obedient not to what you feel but what is written
What about if you’ve already had tats and didn’t know about this. Bit late to do anything? Having them removed isn’t a financial option unfortunately. If God will accept murderers etc who have converted to being christians, why not people with tats?
The mark of the beast will be on the right hand or forehead.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Matthew 5:17
We suppose to be different cause JESUS LIVE IN US AND OUR BODIES ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
To sandy: i dont believe you will be beld accountable if you didnt know. It is for someone who feels in their heart it could be wrong and study the bible and dont feel good about getting a tattoo and still go ahead with it. If have a tattoo and now feel the need to repent then you can be forgiven.
Isaiah 44:5 was referenced as saying “…write ON his hand… “. It actually says “…write WITH his hand”. There’s a difference.
There are so many things we do that are anathema to the holy scriptures and in my opinion tattoos are much less consequential than most. Biblical body art may be better than wearing your religion on your sleeve!
Isn’t the body a temple so defiling the temple would be prohibited.
So…..that’s not what the verse says according to the original text. There was not and is not a word for tattoo in the original Hebrew text. This is misleading.
I took this clipping below from a thread.
וְשֶׂ֣רֶט לָנֶ֗פֶשׁ לֹ֤א תִתְּנוּ֙ בִּבְשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וּכְתֹ֣בֶת קַֽעֲקַ֔ע לֹ֥א תִתְּנ֖וּ בָּכֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֽה׃
I would say a more literal translation would be something like:
An engraving for the dead: do not make one in your flesh, and do not make a tattooed inscription for yourself; I am the L!RD.
Later rabbinic commentary argues about the exact parameters of this verse but does eventually settle on identifying this with various forms of bodily modification. But yes, in the Biblical context, it would appear that this commandment is linked with fears around imitating Canaanite mourning practices (whether they indeed practiced all or any of the things the Bible attributes to them is another question).
I agree and believe strongly about what the bible says on