Tattoos, why do people get them and mess up their body?

The poll at the beginning of the thread is meaningless. It's obvious that you're not trying to be objective.

Also, the spelling is atrocious.

pescador said:

The poll at the beginning of the thread is meaningless. It's obvious that you're not trying to be objective.

Also, the spelling is atrocious.

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English isn't the OP's first language.

-CryptoLutheran

I think it is a tall order to enhance the original design. I liken it to defacing a work of art. I don't have one and would be hard pressed to be with a women who did.

I got several tattoos but you cant see them because of my fur!

With your short legs, a sleeve would consist of one tattoo!

Lost4words said:

I got several tattoos but you cant see them because of my fur!

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I try not to judge, but I'm not a fan of tattoos. I don't find them appealing on women, and in my opinion they damage their physical beauty.

I remember one bloke we helped via Saint Vincent de Paul. He needed money and food, but he'd probably spent thousands of dollars on tattoos and other body ornaments which would have made him unemployable in a lot of jobs.

On the other hand, I remember one of our past Vinnies members saying that she'd been in a bad car accident. A bunch of passing bikie gang members helped her to get out of her car. She said the bloke who helped her the most was absolutely covered in tattoos, and quipped "He probably had them on his privates".

The fact he was covered in tattoos and was a bikie gang member didn't stop him helping when it counted.

Where i live we have a biker gang called "The God squad"...

Their mission is to help the homeless and preach the word of God...

Tattoos and leathers etc!

I don't see anything wrong with tattoos. It's everyone's choice

I got a scar which I have been thinking of putting a tattoo over. There are a few reasons I haven't done it. It's expensive and I'm not that fond of tattoos generally. Third reason is that I may get annoyed by it over time.

Why isn't there a middle vote in the poll?

ViaCrucis said:

Or shave the edges of your beard. Leviticus 19:27

But since I'm not Jewish, but a Christian, neither applies to me.

-CryptoLutheran

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I can see you are wrong, for God is speaking about mankind; though He spoke in that time to Israel, it is the Creator-God speaking; and He is still speaking to mankind today much the same.

1watchman said:

I can see you are wrong, for God is speaking about mankind; though He spoke in that time to Israel, it is the Creator-God speaking; and He is still speaking to mankind today much the same.

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"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." - Hebrews 3:1-6

-CryptoLutheran

Tattoos, why do people get them and mess up their body?

When I find out, you'll be the first to know. . .

mindfulzen said:

Watching a game, and all the players are tattooed. Half the players have done entire arms, and I assume they will show more when the game is over and swap shirts. As a buddhist I would not get it because I figured that if I got reincarnated as a humanbeing again, those tattoos would become birthmarks or skindcondition. Since it would be hard to get the ink out of the skin, cleaning. I viewed it as a "deity" of sorts, doing laundry with our body and souls, and could not wash everything white again.

I have since become christian and the opinion still stands, if you can get a new trial of life, if you do not qualify for heaven but did enough to not go to hell. And also, I do not think it pleases the lord. What say you? Any scripture regarding this?

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Because I am not of Jewish descent, Acts 15 liberates me from the prohibition on tattoos. However, I have no desire to permanently mark my skin. I consider them permissible, but often done in bad taste.

Funny story: There's a football team here in the US that is famously terrible, but has its loyal fans. One such fan had a couple friends that bet him $50 that he wouldn't get a tattoo of the team logo on his butt. So he went out and got it done, the tattoo cost $100. Unless he was going to get it anyway, he took a financial loss on winning the bet.

mindfulzen said:

And what will he think of my nipplering? Is that scarring the body, and the ring should be removed and cut close up again?Is jewlery frowned upon?

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There's no command for or against piercings, specifically.

My daughter and I both got Harry Potter themed tattoos a few years ago. I also have an earring, coincidentally done about two minutes before my daughter got her ears pierced. She was a baby when we got her ears pierced, and she was an adult when I got my tattoo (and she got her third tattoo.)

I don't think God cares one way or another. I did it for fun, and have not regretted it. It hasn't hurt my witness AFAICT, maybe because you can only see my tattoo when I am wearing a tank top or sleeveless T-shirt.

My daughter has three tattoos, my son has three, my mother (aged 90) has mascara permanently tattooed around her eyes. My sister-in-law is almost completely covered. Full sleeves, both arms and both legs. She got a camel tattoo after her first year of sobriety (she is now at nearly 40 years clean and sober). My brother went on a diet thirty years ago, and lost 117 lbs. Then he started running - 5Ks, 10Ks, and onward. When he finished his first marathon, he got wings tattooed on his ankles. When he entered the Iron Man triathlon (5K swim, 200K bike, then a full marathon) he got the Marvel comic character Iron Man tattooed on one leg. That looked lonely, so he had the Human Torch, Captain America, the Mighty Thor, and Spider-Man on his legs.

My wife actually had a polyp tattooed in her colon during her last colonoscopy, so they can check next time if it is getting bigger. I tried to get the doctor to do "Mother" or "Born to Raise Hell" but he said he didn't have a tattooist license, so it is just a dot. So that doesn't count.

My brother says the difference between people with tattoos and people without are that people with tattoos don't care if someone else doesn't have a tattoo.

Regards,
Shodan

Our Lord said, "They will know You are My disciples by the love you have for one another."

It's not what we wear.
It's not what we eat.
It's not what we drink.
It's not whether we are tattooed or not.
It's not about how we decorate ourselves.
It's not about any of these things.

It's about taking up our cross and following Jesus.

Our "witness" to Christ is in how we treat other people, in particular the "least of these". Not on how moral we believe ourselves to be, or following complex purity rules that we make up ourselves.

Our distinction as God's people is to be found in the message we proclaim and the way in which that message is manifest in our living in relation to other people.

No one is made an ounce holier by what they wear, eat, drink, or watch on television. There is no holiness to be found in any of these things.

How ought we live here in the world? Jesus gives us this answer in His Sermon on the Mount/Plain, and St. Paul echoes our Lord in Romans ch. 12.

It's love. Love is what the Christian life is supposed to look like, and we know what true love looks like because we have Love Himself who poured His life out unto death for the sake of a disobedient and hateful world; and the clear description of love in 1 Corinthians 13.

Religion, without love, is just noise.

-CryptoLutheran

Jared Bell said:

Tattoos
For me tattoos are not necessary and I don't think they're a good idea. On the other hand I think one needs to approach getting a tattoo with prayer and referring to the Bible what God has to say about it in there. You also need to think about for what reason are you getting a tattoo. Are you getting a tattoo for Jesus Christ, or are you getting a tattoo because it's popular and cool and makes you fit in? How long before you are doing other things that are cool and popular and makes you fit in but are contrary to what God does say in the Bible. It's always a slow drift, a little here and a little there and before you know it you think a bible believing Christian is the enemy in the way they think, talk and live. So I think careful consideration is required, for what reason am I getting this tattoo? For what reason do I have a desire to get this tattoo?

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The Christians have Egypt have been tattooing themselves for centuries. The world's oldest tattoo parlor is a tattoo shop run by an Egyptian Christian family in Jerusalem that has been in operation since middle ages. It was established for Egyptian pilgrims coming to Jerusalem.

Why do they tattoo themselves? In the 7th century the Muslim armies conquered Egypt, the indigenous Christian population which had been there since the time of the Apostles (the Church in Alexandria being one of the most ancient and important centers of Christianity, and which was established by St. Mark) wanted to preserve their identity in an increasingly Muslim world in which they found themselves. So, they would tattoo small crosses onto themselves, including their children, so that their Christianity would always be permanently on display on their bodies. Even if someone kidnapped a Christian child, that child would still always have the mark of the Christian faith on their body, a reminder of who they are and where they came from.

I also think that your slippery-slope argument is a bit fallacious. As one could easily apply that to conceivable scenario. But then I have seen people say that watching Star Wars or Harry Potter is a slipper slope to witchcraft and Satanism, so really it does get applied to nearly any scenario.

Rather than a slippery slope; wouldn't it be more prudent to simply emphasize faith and Christian discipleship through good works? Whether or not someone gets a tattoo, or what music they listen to, or what movies they watch, games they play, clothes they wear, food they eat, it's all just irrelevant really and really boils down to one's conscience.

I'd argue that more damage is done to those immature and young in the faith when they are given a laundry list of meaningless rules that God certainly does not expect of them, and their Christianity becomes identified with those meaningless moralistic rules--rather than it being about Jesus Christ, His Gospel, and the call to Christian discipleship.

-CryptoLutheran

redundant