A little over a year ago, I got a tattoo on my upper arm. It is two nails in the shape of a cross with the Jesus fish symbol wrapping around it in blood. I had a clear conscience at the time, but after a while started to question whether or not it was wrong to get the tattoo. My dad, a very strong Christian, had many tattoos, but had most of the visible ones (his sleeves on his forearms) removed because he didn't want to look intimidating (he's a 6'5 ex marine, so that along with the tattoos was a bit of an off-putting image). He has no moral objections to tattoos and I was always raised that tattoos were in no way wrong. My tattoo is almost always hidden and most of friends forget I even have it because they go months without ever seeing it because of its location, so looking "intimidating" or it hindering my ability to witness is really not much of a factor here. I also don't think my mindset in getting it was rebellious or really even vain, I just thought it would be cool to have a permanent cross on body to make it clear what I'm what all about. I prayed about it beforehand and didn't sense any objection. The question I've been dealing with is if a tattoo in and of itself is inappropriate for a Christian to have. If it's not a moral problem, I have no regret of getting it. It's pretty cool and has given me a couple of opportunities to explain it and how it represents the ruggedness and weight of the cross that was carried for us.
I have tendencies to often go through phases where I really struggle with legalism. Though I'm getting better about it, it has not been uncommon for me to really start to separate myself from God because I'm afraid that something that I don't even know is wrong is putting me at enmity with God. A month or so ago, I saw a post online about how tattoos that are not repented for and removed will send someone to Hell. This seemed ridiculous to me at the time because I've thoroughly studied the context of Leviticus 19:28 and other passages used against tattoos and found no basis that they are wrong, but it soon started to really make me worry about if they are right.
I looked into tattoo removal, but cannot afford to have it removed professionally, so if I do decide to have it removed I will definitely use salabrasion (thoroughly rubbing layers of the skin off with salt water and gauze) to do it myself. I like the tattoo and don't want to remove it, but if it is wrong for me to have, I will certainly remove it no matter how painful it may be.
Sorry for the long post. I'm sorry if there are other threads on the morality of tattoos, but I asked this because my situation is a little bit different than the mere morality of getting a tattoo (my situation being having a tattoo and wondering how/if I should deal with that). Like I said, based on scripture, my current stance is that I don't think tattoos are wrong, but I really don't want to mess this up and face serious consequences for my ignorance. I also don't know if that mindset I just described is edging on the side of legalism that I often struggle with.
I would really like all of your thoughts on this matter. To put this all into 2 questions:
1. Should I feel bad about my tattoo and regard it as sinful?
2. Should I remove it?
Don't feel like you need to follow those questions specifically.
Thank you very much for any genuine contribution.