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

[ViaCrucis]

the thing about above is that it's permanent
one of my sisters got her ears pierced & ended up not being able to wear earrings; she will always have those holes as they will never close

daughter & I have discussed it
she will never get her ears pierced or get tattooed
she makes beautiful earrings that hook around her ears or clip on; her friends at school like them & request earrings for themselves

every time husband, teen, and I see totally tattooed people, we can't help but say "eww"
that green color is SO ugly....maybe they could make a more pleasing green color?

I say this in love, but do you really believe that this behavior you've described is godly and pleasing to Jesus?

-CryptoLutheran

 

[mama2one]

I say this in love, but do you really believe that this behavior you've described is godly and pleasing to Jesus?

you are right, defacing one's beautiful skin is not pleasing to Jesus


there are several functions of the skin:
8 Essential Skin Functions

1) protection
2) sensation
3) temperature regulation
4) immunity
5) permit movement and growth
6) excretion
7) endocrine
8) absorption & water resistance

no functions are listed as "canvas for tattoos"

 

[Saint Jared Bell]

I say this in love, but do you really believe that this behavior you've described is godly and pleasing to Jesus?

-CryptoLutheran

I've got a question, do you think you're a good person?

 

[mama2one]

Tattoos damage skin sweat glands, landmark study claims


“These data suggest that tattooing functionally damages secretion mechanisms, affecting the reflex capacity of the gland to produce sweat, but does not appear to affect neural signaling to initiate sweating,” the researchers conclude in the newly published study. “Decreased sweating could impact heat dissipation especially when tattooing covers a higher percentage of body surface area and could be considered a potential long-term clinical side effect of tattooing.”

 

[ViaCrucis]

you are right, defacing one's beautiful skin is not pleasing to Jesus

That's not yours to judge or decide. Your job is to love other people and be a disciple of Jesus.

Or do you not know the Scripture, "For with that judgment you so judge, you yourself shall also be judged"?

My response was genuinely out of a desire for loving correction. But your response baffles and saddens me.

Dear sister in Christ, repent.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

I've got a question, do you think you're a good person?

I know I'm not. I'm a damnable sinner that sins.

But what's that got to do with anything?

-CryptoLutheran

 

[mama2one]

fyi, the poll is 9 to 1.

"Tattoo is totally not good at all" has the 9.

@ViaCrucis

 

[ViaCrucis]

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Which has nothing to do with tattoos, and doesn't justify failing to obey Christ's command to love our neighbor.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Eloy Craft]

Sometimes if this person does it, it's not a sin or perhaps as bad a sin as it would be if that person did the same thing.
Freedom and knowledge weigh in on how accountable we are. Not knowing what we do I think gets many of us off the hook.

 

[mama2one]

nm

 

[Saint Jared Bell]

I know I'm not. I'm a damnable sinner that sins.

But what's that got to do with anything?

-CryptoLutheran

Just because we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ doesn't mean we just do whatever because we can, yes we love God and our neighbors and don't forget your enemies also. And at the same time we have personal convictions and that was simply all I stated and I think I made it clear it was a personal conviction and just didn't think it was a good idea to get tattoos. Do I think getting a tattoo or having a tattoo will send someone to hell absolutely not. The Bible is clear, those who go to hell are those who have rejected the son of God Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, not those who have or get a tattoo.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Just because we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ doesn't mean we just do whatever because we can, yes we love God and our neighbors and don't forget your enemies also.

That's the Commandment. Love our neighbor. Everything else is secondary. Galatians 5:14. You're right, we can't just live however we want. We are called to lives of obedience, humility, and sacrifice by loving our neighbor as Christ our God has commanded us. St. Paul says we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. This is what it means for us to be the Temple of God, to be God's people, living godly lives of discipleship and obedience to Jesus Christ.

And at the same time we have personal convictions and that was simply all I stated and I think I made it clear it was a personal conviction and just didn't think it was a good idea to get tattoos. Do I think getting a tattoo or having a tattoo will send someone to hell absolutely not. The Bible is clear, those who go to hell are those who have rejected the son of God Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, not those who have or get a tattoo.

It's perfectly fine if you have a conviction to not get a tattoo. Then don't get one. It ceases to be a personal conviction when we start to judge, belittle, demean, or otherwise de-humanize our neighbors. This is basic. Read through Romans chapter 14; on matters of conscience we do not judge.

I find it deeply concerning that I have to explain what should be some of the most rudimentary Sunday School lessons that we even teach toddlers and small children.

Loving our neighbor isn't just something we do on the side. If we aren't loving our neighbor then we aren't following Jesus, and if we aren't loving our neighbor then we aren't loving God--for St. John says "If anyone says they love God but hates their brother, they are a liar, and the truth is not in them."

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Saint Jared Bell]

That's the Commandment. Love our neighbor. Everything else is secondary. Galatians 5:14. You're right, we can't just live however we want. We are called to lives of obedience, humility, and sacrifice by loving our neighbor as Christ our God has commanded us. St. Paul says we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. This is what it means for us to be the Temple of God, to be God's people, living godly lives of discipleship and obedience to Jesus Christ.



It's perfectly fine if you have a conviction to not get a tattoo. Then don't get one. It ceases to be a personal conviction when we start to judge, belittle, demean, or otherwise de-humanize our neighbors. This is basic. Read through Romans chapter 14; on matters of conscience we do not judge.

I find it deeply concerning that I have to explain what should be some of the most rudimentary Sunday School lessons that we even teach toddlers and small children.

Loving our neighbor isn't just something we do on the side. If we aren't loving our neighbor then we aren't following Jesus, and if we aren't loving our neighbor then we aren't loving God--for St. John says "If anyone says they love God but hates their brother, they are a liar, and the truth is not in them."

-CryptoLutheran

I'm failing to see how I hated my neighbor. Can you clarify how I hated my neighbor?

 

[bèlla]

But that is not the way you learned Christ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

I believe the word on the subject. Whether we reference the old or new testaments the same holds true. We’re made in His image and I try to respect my temple. It isn’t limited to markings, diet, etc.

That was my consensus in the world and it deepened when I returned. No one can alter that. You can’t change my mind because you think differently or behaved otherwise now or in the past.

I believe its wrong to violate our temple. That’s my conviction and the principle I reinforce at home. You don’t have to agree.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I'm failing to see how I hated my neighbor. Can you clarify how I hated my neighbor?

I wasn't referring to your actions. But another poster on here who described being disgusted and mocking people with tattoos and seemingly being oblivious to how that is patently sinful and abhorrent behavior. Which is why I tried to encourage her to think about it. And I became more emphatic as I saw push back, hence why I told her she should seek repentance (which shouldn't be a crazy, we all should be living in repentance as Christians, dying daily in repentance). That's simply what it means to follow Jesus, to be a Christian. We take up our cross and follow Him, it's not about doing things to impress God, it's about caring and loving people who need cared for and loved. It's about making sure your neighbor has food and drink and clothing.

There's no righteousness or holiness to be found in silly things like what we wear, or whether we get tattoos, piercings, or what music or movies or other forms of entertainment we take in. There's no righteousness or holiness in all of these vain meaningless things.

What matter is how we treat other people made in God's image.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Cockcrow]

the marks on the body always disturb me, it seems like everyone now has at least one tattoo even if it is a small one on the hand that isn't noticeable, but most have full body tattoos now. And worse is how they all try to justify it, and when you bring it up they say that Jesus actually supports tattoos when the Bible says nothing about it. I think it is a mark of Satan, how can children of God ever do this to their body? I can't imagine there being any tattoos in the Kingdom of Heaven, why people get them? it's demonic

 

[VMaeLove]

It is weird Tattoos is a very hot topic for some people. Even saying negative things about attractiveness or worry for safety.

I did not experience it until I became a Christian.
I was told at a Church I could not help with a lunch unless I covered my body. In heat of Summer!

Where does this nasty thinking come from?

 

[ViaCrucis]

It is weird Tattoos is a very hot topic for some people. Even saying negative things about attractiveness or worry for safety.

I did not experience it until I became a Christian.
I was told at a Church I could not help with a lunch unless I covered my body. In heat of Summer!

Where does this nasty thinking come from?

As with all sin, it comes from the sick, sinful, human, heart.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, 'You sit here in a good place,' while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or, 'Sit down at my feet,' have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." - James 2:1-13

-CryptoLutheran

 

[mama2one]

God gave us beautiful skin which has multiple purposes.
Do people honestly believe defacing the skin with a weird green color & affecting one of the skin's functions is ok?

Cutting into the skin is ok?
Putting skulls & all kinds of strange figures on skin & allowing kids to see things they shouldn't is ok?

Tattooed people subject our children to look at snakes, skulls, demon faces, etc

Don't want my child seeing horrible pics on people's bodies. Many go around half naked to "show off" their tattoes.

No, I don't want my kid subjected to that! We shouldn't be subjected to those horrible, often R rated subject matter. Keep it covered if one chooses to deface & ruin the beautiful skin God gave us.

 

[ViaCrucis]

God gave us beautiful skin which has multiple purposes.
Do people honestly believe defacing the skin with a weird green color & affecting one of the skin's functions is ok?

It's. Not. Your. Business. They aren't sinning. They aren't hurting anyone. They are doing nothing wrong. Just because you, personally, dislike tattoos does not give you a license to sin against your neighbor.

Cutting into the skin is ok?
Putting skulls and all kinds of strange figures & forcing little kids to see things they shouldn't have to look at is ok?

Again. Not your business. Your personal and subjective feelings are not the basis of what is right or wrong.

Tattooed people subject our children to look at- snakes, skulls, demon faces, etc

Well heaven to betsy, not snakes, skulls, and weird faces. I sure hope you never expose your children to the dangers of Renaiisance art.

Yes, I am making light of your concern. Because it is a trivial matter compared to actually obeying Jesus Christ.

A child is not going to be scarred for their entire life because a man on the bus happened to have a partially covered tattoo of a skull. But they probably will by a lack of compassion and love and the lack of the display of these things by adults who are there to guide them and instruct them and raise up them in righteousness.

Don't want my child being seeing horrible pics on people's bodies. Many go around half naked to "show off" that stuff.

We were in a restaurant eating before pandemic & a woman was half naked (tiny little top with no back) across from us.

No, I don't want my kid subjected to that! We shouldn't be subjected to those horrible, often R rated subject matter. Keep it covered if one chooses to deface & ruin the beautiful skin God gave us.

How do you not understand that what YOU are carrying on about has nothing to do with what the Bible says, or what God wants, or what Jesus commands--but how we treat other people IS?

This isn't up for a debate. Jesus says love people. Jesus didn't call that the "Great Suggestion", He calls it the Great Commandment, the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

The only one sinning when you judge and condemn a person with a tattoo or who is "showing too much skin" in your opinion is you. You're the sinner in this scenario. The more you try to shift blame onto others rather than taking responsibility for your own heart, mind, and actions the more you dig yourself into deeper and deeper sin.

Don't, dear sister in Christ, instead hear what the Apostle says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body", for which is worse? Ink upon the skin, or sin deep in our bodily members which provokes us to speak and think and feel wickedness toward our neighbor?

On the Last Day, when we all have to stand account, do you really think God will say to the man with a tattoo you don't like will be judged by God as harshly as the one who refused to love said man?

We must all stand and give account, dear sister. We must all, one day, face the music for how we lived our lives. And Jesus doesn't say, "Oh, well, you wore a skimpy bikini to the beach, and you had a tattoo."

No. What He says is, "I was hungry, and you did not give me food. I was thirst, and you did not give me drink. I was naked, and you did not clothe me. ... I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me."

Do you recall Jesus' story of the Pharisee and the tax collector?

-CryptoLutheran