Getting a Tattoo

While tattoos are a mainstream form of self-expression today, the Bible presents a very different perspective in its original context. In the Old Testament law, God gave Israel specific instructions to distinguish them from the surrounding pagan nations, whose religious and mourning practices often involved cutting or permanently marking the body. This is the setting in which the prohibition on tattoos appears. The verse is grouped with commands against pagan mourning rituals, forbidding both self-mutilation for the dead and the marking of the skin as part of those customs. The text reads: “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.” — Leviticus 19:28 (ESV) The emphasis is on separating God’s people from practices associated with idol worship and occult or superstitious rituals, underscoring that their bodies ultimately belong to the Lord and are not to be used in the same way as the surrounding cultures.