Is it a Sin to Get a Tattoo?

Is it a sin to get a tattoo? 

If someone says it's wrong for Christians to get tattoos because the Bible says so, they're referring to Leviticus 19:28 which states:  

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos." 

Now that seems like a pretty straightforward airtight argument until you ask them to read the law right before.  Verse 27 says, “Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards." If the person who told you tattoos are bad is male and isn't rocking a Duck Dynasty beard and curly locks of hair flowing down from their temples, it doesn't matter if they're "ink free", they still have some explaining to do.  

But the Law covered a lot more than just tattoos and hair care.  If you're going to include the Old Testament in your rules for right living before God then here are three more laws to add to your daily.

• Exodus 23:13 NLT  “Pay close attention to all my instructions. You must not call on the name of any other gods. Do not even speak their names."  Imagine being a 7th-grade History teacher at a Christian school and trying to teach Greek mythology. "So class, this is lightning bolt guy..."
  
  
• Leviticus 19:19 NLT  "...Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread."  Have you checked the tags of all the clothes in your closet? If it doesn't say "Made of 100% ...", you're walking in sin whenever you wear it--literally and spiritually at the same time!
  
  
• Leviticus 3:17 NLT  "You must never eat any fat or blood. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation, wherever you live.”  For all you meat lovers, now you only have two choices:  extra-lean and well-done.  Say a tearful goodbye to those marble-cut briskets and T-bone steaks.  And it means you'll have to downgrade from moist and tender to dry and tough.  Make sure your steak knife is sharp and water glass full my friend.

So we have a dilemma.  It would be very disingenuous to pick and choose which Laws to follow.  God did not give the Israelites in the Old Testament that option, so what makes us think we can?  

Well, we can't either. 

The Bible says those who chose to live by Old Testament laws for living right before God are then required to keep the whole law--not cherry-pick to their convenience. James 2:10 clears that up:

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all."

But there's more.

"Those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse." Galatians 3:10 

And it gets worse. 

"If you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace." Galatians 5:4 

Jesus came and completed, fulfilled, and ended--literally, made obsolete, the law. On the cross, His last words were, "It is finished." What was finished? The Law. The night before He inaugurated the New Covenant (testament) with his disciples. They thought they were there to celebrate the Old Covenant Feast of Passover. And it started that way but then midway through He picks up the cup and says, "This cup is the new covenant...with my blood." Luke 22:20 

Hebrews 8:13 unpacks Jesus' statement pretty well.

"When God speaks of a "new covenant", it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear."

So if you've read this far I hope you're wondering, 

What do we do with the 39 books that take 7 months to get through before getting to the New Testament when we're reading our Bible through in a year? 

"So what's the purpose of the Old Testament?  

How are we as Christians today to interact with the Old Testament? (Now we're getting somewhere.)

You may still be wondering about the lead question, Is it right or wrong for a Christian to get a tattoo? And I'll get to that.  But I kinda click-baited you.  Would you have opened this article if it had been titled, "What's the Purpose of the Law?" Not likely, but it's infinitely more important and the question of tattoos does illustrate the point.  So I don't feel that guilty.  Stick with me.

So back to the important question, "How are we as Christians today to interact with the Old Testament?"  And would you have it, a question like that was asked of Jesus in Matthew 22:35-40.

Matthew 22:35-40 NASB  One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,  36  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  37  And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'  38  "This is the great and foremost commandment.  39  "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'  40  "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Another reason to despise lawyers.  Trying to trick Jesus.  But lawyers do love laws and the Old Testament had plenty of them--a lot more than the Top Ten. The Law had 613 rules and regulations.  That's a lot of laws to remember, let alone obey, and they were an overwhelming, impossible burden for everyone who tried.  

Had Jesus been a good Pharisee he would have answered, "All of them!" Let's just heap more desperation, hopelessness and guilt on everyone.  And you know, that was the purpose of the Law. God intended the Law to squash and obliterate any hopes of man doing good enough to be good enough for God.   He had to first come down and reveal Himself as a Holy, righteous, perfect, all-powerful God that demanded moral perfection, "Be holy for I am holy." to gain favor and access to His Kingdom, before he could come down as "one of us" who takes away the sins of the world.  

The heart of man is really stubborn.  Pride is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason.  And God understood how badly sin had corrupted and deceived our hearts.  We're not going to give up our "I'm pretty good enough. Especially compared to that guy." until we are convinced the standard of "good" is set by the perfection of God. That will level our pride and self-righteousness and position us in the proper place to admit we need a Savior.    

And remember, it was all obedience or nothing. One slip up--guilty.  Oh, I forgot to keep law 389--guilty.  (Remember James 2:10?)

But Jesus didn't answer "All of them." And he didn't answer with a question. And that was rare for Him. When they asked him questions to trick him, He usually responded with His own questions that shut them up.  But this time he gave a straight answer.  To paraphrase, "Love God, love people." And what he said next was revolutionary, "On these two commandments depend the whole law and the Prophets."

In three sentences he turned the Law upside down.  Instead of 613 rules and regulations to follow with an all-or-nothing price tag, He instead distilled them down to two relationships to follow.  First, love God, second, love people.  That's the Law of Christ.  That's the two rules, or better, relationships for believers to follow.  And you can't/won't follow them if you first don't love God. 

So if the Law has been fulfilled in Christ and there are only two relationships to follow, then what do we make of the Old Testament?  What is its purpose for us today?  It's definitely not to tell us tattoos are wrong.  

Here are 12 reasons believers need to know their Old Testament:

There are countless treasures to be discovered as we read the Old Testament.  The Old Testament gives us principles, patterns and examples for living a life that loves God and loves people. 

Finally, and thank you for your patience, now that we have a better understanding of the purpose of the Law, we can address the question:

So is it right or wrong for a Christian to get a tattoo? 

I've been asked that a few times as a pastor. You look to the New Testament for instruction. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says "You must honor God with your body." and James 4:17 says "to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin." So I ask them two questions. 

First, Does the ink you want give honor to God? And I don't just mean is it a cross or Scripture or something biblical. Perhaps they want to honor a loved one. Expressing love and honor to others can model love, which would honor God. 

And the second question, Do you in any way feel guilty about getting a tattoo? In other words, you're not asking me as a pastor for permission are you? The Law of Christ, not the Law of Moses, is written on our hearts. That's our guidance.  So to one it would be sin, but to another not. Even if it's a God-honoring tattoo, if you are sensing guilt or doubt about it...to him who knows to do good and does not, to him it is sin.  

So let's have a quick visit to the Old Testament again and a visual picture for you.  I'm sure you'd prefer a picture than another thousand words.

In many ways, you're like a tourist when visiting the Old Testament. Just like a different country they lived by a different set of laws (Old Covenant) and consequences for breaking the laws. In OLD LAWtonia there are countless treasures to discover about God's nature and ways that never change, your love and faith in God will be deepened. 

But don't forget, you live by the New Covenant, you are a GRACElander!