From a Christian perspective that bucks our currently self-centered, hedonistic culture:
Six Reasons to Skip Tattoos // Ask Pastor John
Six Reasons to Skip Tattoos
Interview with John Piper
Audio Transcript [episode 241]
…I am not saying that getting a tattoo is intrinsically sinful or evil. I am not going to go there, because I don’t see the warrant for it in Scripture. …
Adorn to the Glory of God
I tried to give biblical guidelines yesterday [episode 240] for how to think about tattoos, as well as jewelry and makeup and hairdos and clothing, which all belong to the same category, and the Bible is clear. Following Jesus makes a difference on how you dress and how you do everything — “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). …
1. Tattoos focus on external adornment.
In view of Paul’s counsel against adornment — being minimally external and maximally internal — and in view of his counsel that the adornment or the hair not signify excessive preoccupation with looks, I would say tattoos do signify a fairly high preoccupation with looks, because to choose to get an adornment that will be with you forever is a high-level commitment to adornment. I think probably too high. …
2. Tattoos are permanent.
Tattoos are permanent — unless you pay big bucks with significant pain to have them removed. …
Thus, tattoos are like putting on lipstick you can never take off. They are like applying eye shadow that you will wear day and night forever. They are like a necklace that grows into your skin and stays there permanently. They are like a twist you put in your hair and can never ever remove no matter how the styles change. I think it is foolish to do with a tattoo what you would not do with any of your other skin adornments. …
3. You and the culture will change.
You will not look the same in twenty years or have the same tastes. The lightning bolt on your neck is going to look like a ridiculous splotch on the folds of your wrinkled skin. Tattooing is a naïve way of thinking that what you like now you are going to like in twenty or thirty years. You won’t.
In fifteen years you will have different tastes. The culture will be different. What is cool now will look silly and trendy and dated someday. You will grow. …
4. Tattoos taint the skin.
Tattoos do not make you prettier or more handsome. Now, here I know this is opinion — and just hear my opinion. Take it or leave it. Tattoos are, in general, ugly. They are discolorations of pretty skin, and they get uglier as time goes by. Even the colors that they try to make, they are not pretty colors. You are very limited in what you can do with that tattoo. It is kind of a grayish-blue.
Men find women’s skin attractive to see and to touch. Tattoos do not make that skin more desirable or attractive. That is one man’s view….
5. Tattoos do not offer timeless Christian branding.
The best motive I can think of for a tattoo is a kind of self-imposed Christian branding, some Christian symbol or words that say, “I belong to Jesus.” My problem with that motive is that there is a much better way to brand yourself biblically — namely, with love (John 13:35). “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16).
Tattoo branding is too easy. And it may not be the note you want to strike in ten years. …
6. Tattoos are missionally limiting.
You may get a tattoo now because you are trying to reach tattooed people with the gospel, but that same tattoo may be a huge stumbling block among Muslim peoples God is going to take you to in fifteen years. You don’t know what the future holds.
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