Orthodox Reflections

By way of introduction, let me say that I myself have tattoos, and at one point I had an eyebrow piercing. Tattoos are a sensitive subject because they are something that cannot be reversed. Most of this applies to my younger self.

So, why are tattoos a sin? The Bible does not directly address it except for one verse.

Lev 19.28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

This seems to be a reference to a contemporary pagan practice. It is immediately preceded by not cutting the corners of your hair (hence the modern Jewish long curls) and followed by not prostituting your daughter. So, in my opinion, it is not relevant.

Tattoos are a sin for the same reason that cosmetics are a sin. Maybe it’s not an absolute sin if you do it in ignorance, but if you know better, then it’s a sin. All of the Fathers who spoke on this topic – Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, Jerome, Cyprian of Carthage, Symeon the New Theologian, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem — agree that it is a very serious sin and not some minor oversight to paint the face.

Suppose a painter should depict in colors that rival nature’s the features and form and complexion of some man, and that, when the portrait had been finished with consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, as if to improve by his superior skill the painting already completed; surely the first artist would feel deeply insulted, and his indignation would be justly roused. Dost thou, then, think that thou wilt carry off with impunity so audacious an act of wickedness, such an insult to God the great artificer? For, granting that thou art not immodest in thy behavior towards men, and that thou art not polluted in mind by these meretricious deceits, yet, in corrupting and violating what is God’s, thou provest thyself worse than an adulteress.  [St Cyprian of Carthage, quoted in St Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine]

Has God made thee beautiful? Why dost thou make thyself otherwise? For as though one should overlay a golden statue with a daubing of mire, so it is with those women that use paints. Thou besmearest thyself with red and white earth! But the homely, you say, may fairly have recourse to this. And why? To hide their ugliness? It is a vain attempt. For when was the natural appearance improved upon by that which is studied and artificial? And why shouldest thou be troubled at thy want of beauty, since it is no reproach? For hear the saying of the Wise Man, “Commend not a man for his beauty, neither abhor a man for his outward appearance.” (Ecclus. 11:2.) [St John Chrysostom, 4^th homily on 1 Timothy]

And all the Fathers who talk on this topic say similar things. We also see warnings in the New Testament about jewelry and fashioning the hair.

1 Tim 2.9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

1 Peter 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

So if wearing jewelry and braiding one’s hair and wearing fancy clothes is a sin, and if painting the face is a sin, all of which are temporary, how much more so something permanent like tattoos and piercings?

The Christian tradition has no concept of tattooing. There is no word for it. Our English word “tattoo” is Polynesian because it is so foreign. Tattoos and brandings, at the most, were done to convicts and slaves. It was never a fashion statement until recent centuries, and only in recent decades did it become a societal norm.

Likewise, until the last century, only prostitutes painted their faces because it simulates ovulation.

Someone will say, “But the Copts get cross tattoos on their wrists.” The Copts are desert heretics. Their opinion doesn’t matter. But even if it does, so what? Their context is surviving as a minority culture surrounded by Islam. It wasn’t an aesthetic design — it was a cultural unity ritual. It was distinguishing them from those other people who make up the majority. We don’t have that culture or that context, and it’s disingenuous to take an exception to the rule and use it for our own vanity.

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and it is entirely unique to you. A liver is just a liver, but every skin system is different. Tattooing involves breaking the skin and injecting ink into it. This ink is a poison, and the body tries to remove it, which is why tattoos fade over time. It is literally self-harm to get a tattoo. In no other context do we consider cutting or poisoning one’s self to be something morally neutral.

Tattoos Increase Cancer Risk by 21 Percent

Tattoos have grown increasingly popular as a means of self-expression. Around 32 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo, and an estimated 22 percent have multiple.

 

However, as tattoos become more widespread, so too has the incidence of malignant lymphoma—increasing 3 percent to 4 percent over the past 40 years. Recent research from Lund University in Sweden, published in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine, suggests a potential connection.

 

The study analyzed data from nearly 12,000 people aged 20 to 60, matched with a control group of the same age and sex without lymphoma. Participants completed questionnaires about lifestyle factors, including tattoos. Researchers found that those with tattoos were more likely to develop malignant lymphoma compared to those without tattoos.

 

People with tattoos had a 21 percent higher risk of developing any type of lymphoma after adjusting for other factors.

 

The lymphoma risk was highest (81 percent higher) for those who got their first tattoo less than two years before being diagnosed. The risk decreased for those who had gotten their tattoos between three and 10 years ago but increased again (19 percent higher risk) for those who had gotten their first tattoo 11 or more years ago.

 

“We know that tattoo ink often contains hazardous chemicals and that it is deposited in lymph nodes,” Ms. Nielsen told The Epoch Times. The immune system always “attempts to clean out the ink particles that it perceives as something foreign that should not be there,” she added.

 

A 2022 study published in Toxicology and Industrial Health identified toxic substances in tattoo inks and warned that they “could pose toxicological risks to human health.”

At some point in living memory, medical science became all mad science. Healthcare now often involves breaking the body. We use birth control and abortion to break a woman’s natural function and take a life. We use transgender hormones and surgery to deform people. We use plastic surgery to increase someone’s sex appeal. And with increasing legality, we use euthanasia to stop life altogether. None of these “healthcare” procedures are about caring for the health of the body — they are all used to subvert the body’s natural processes.

How is tattooing any different? Especially consider how young women usually have such beautiful skin, and today it’s usually marred by garbage tattoos that are supposed to improve it. If tattooing is a medical procedure — and the tattoo artist tells you to treat the new tattoo like a minor burn — then what is the practical benefit? None at all — it’s merely aesthetic.

Why do we get tattoos? The Copts get tattoos so that they cannot convert to Islam. They get it to preserve their ethnic and cultural identity stretching back to the ancient pharaohs. Russian prisoners get tattoos to signify their affiliations and their stories. Sailors get tattoos to commemorate where they have traveled to.

But none of these reasons are true for Americans (with the sort of exception of prisoners). We get tattoos for self-focused reasons. Our tattoos are about our own self-fulfillment. We get them because we think that they will make us happy. And really, we get them because we hate our bodies.

Ultimately tattoos are rooted in self-loathing. For men, we get tattoos because we want to be more of a bad ass. It’s the weak nerdy types with the most tattoos. For women, they get tattoos because they hate their bodies, because every young woman without exception is self-conscious about something about her body.

And these two reasons are really the same. We do not like how we look, and we want to take ownership of it. We want to make ourselves beautiful. Or if we cannot be beautiful, then at least we want to be ugly on our own terms. We want to say that we chose our looks, however terrible, because at least then it belongs to us.

But this does not solve the problem. The young woman still has a big nose or a flat face. The young man still is weak and cowardly. It reminds me of in Exodus when Moses turns the water into blood, and the magicians perform the same trick to prove that they can do everything he can. But actually what would have solved the problem is turning the blood back into water.

At best a tattoo will only give you temporary happiness by a permanent means. No one looks at his tattoo five years later and thinks, “I am such a bad ass for having that tattoo.” The best case scenario is that you will feel indifferent towards your tattoo in later years.

If we would learn to love ourselves, then we would not want to get tattoos. I do not mean this self-esteem doctrine, where you convince yourself that you’re the best thing ever, just by virtue of existing. I mean to genuinely love yourself beyond categories of right and wrong or beautiful and ugly or strong and weak. If we saw ourselves the way that God sees us, that we have value just for being ourselves, then we would not want to get tattoos.

And so ultimately when we get tattoos, we are saying that God is wrong. We are saying that we are not worthy of love and that there is something broken about us that prevents us from being loved. We don’t believe that anyone could love us for who we are. We know that we are made in the image of God, but we don’t really love God like we claim, and so we are incapable of loving ourselves.

Memorial tattoos are not different. Grandma dies, and you rush out to get her death date on your wrist. But this is just the heat of the emotions. You are afraid that you will forget her, and you convince yourself that somehow she isn’t really dead if she’s still there permanently on your arm. This isn’t a decision done soberly, and often it’s because you secretly feel guilty for neglecting Grandma. A framed picture on the bookshelf would be much more appropriate, but it doesn’t have the grand drama of getting a tattoo. There is no ritualism and loud declaration of devotion with a picture on the wall. Rather, getting a tattoo screams to the world how much love you had for Grandma instead of reflecting quietly on her in humility. The memorial tattoo brings everyone into the private relationship with Grandma that they have no right to intrude upon.

And this underlies the problem with all tattoos – they are driven by the passions. We get them because we are vain, self-hateful, despondent or some other emotion that drives us. Tattoos are rarely gotten soberly for reasons that are not at least partly self-driven.

Tattoos are designed to be looked at. They are supposed to attract attention, even if in a hidden place. This is in contrast to the Copts, who get something small and subtle. But we’re not supposed to attract attention from others. We are only supposed to attract attention from God.

Even getting your kids’ names tattooed onto you is a self-focused act. Your children are not better for it. No one is profited by it. But it is done anyway just for the sake of self-fulfillment.

And so in conclusion, we see that there is no morally justifiable reason to get a tattoo. Tattoos are self-harm, they are rooted in self-loathing, and they are narcissistic. There is no practical benefit to getting a tattoo. Anything in the Christian tradition, and especially the Orthodox tradition, addressing similar practices always condemns them in the strongest terms.

I hate to sound like a feminist, and especially one glorifying obesity, but out of its context, their mantra is true – you have to love the body you’re in, because it’s the only one you’ve got.

— Augustine Martin