What does the Bible say about tattoos?
The Bible names tattooing directly only once, in a list of pagan customs Israel was told to avoid, and the writers read that single verse in the light of what surrounds it — mourning rites, idol worship, and God's claim on the bodies of His people. The question they press is not mainly "is ink allowed?" but "whose mark are you wearing, and who owns the body it is written on?"
The one direct command
Leviticus 19:28 sits inside a run of prohibitions that also covers eating blood, fortune-telling, and trimming the hair and beard in certain ways. One commentator groups them all under a single heading — these were the ways of the nations around Israel, and they clashed with the God who claimed the people as His own:
William KellyThen not only is the eating of anything with the blood forbidden, but enchantments and auguries, and heathenish ways in trimming of heads and beards, cutting of the flesh and tattooing, as opposed to Jehovah.
Why it was forbidden
The reason given is not hygiene or taste. The practices had a religious source, and Israel already belonged to Someone else:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis practice was forbidden in the law, as was making any mark in the flesh. It was customary among the nations around them, who cut themselves for the dead and tattooed their bodies in honour of their gods: the Israelites belonged to Jehovah. Lev. 19:28; Lev. 21:5.
The same ban appears again for the priests and for the nation as God's children, tied to what they were:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe Israelites were forbidden to cut themselves or to make themselves bald for the dead, as the nations around them did; for they were a holy people to the Lord. Lev. 21:5; Deut. 14:1; Jer. 16:6.
The body is not our own
One commentator carries Leviticus 19:27-28 straight across to the New Testament and reads the whole group of practices as serving one motive:
L. M. GrantVerses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with them as we please, whether in shaving for show or making cuts in the flesh or being tattooed (Compare 1 Cor. 6:19-20). All of these are only to satisfy a person's pride.
The purchase behind that claim is put sharply — using the body for self is treated as theft from its owner:
J. N. DarbyWe are not our own, we are bought with a price; let us therefore glorify God in our bodies; 1 Cor. 6:20. In doing anything for myself, I am a dishonest person; He bought me when I was the slave of Satan.
Cutting the flesh as religion
The clearest picture of self-inflicted marks in Scripture is the prophets of Baal, who "cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances" while calling on their god. A comment on Paul's warning against "the concision" in Philippians links the two, and draws a conclusion about religious zeal expressed on the body:
William KellyWe know how the idolatrous priests cut themselves with knives and lances (1 Kings 18:28), and this may refer to that practice. It is astonishing how far the flesh may go in its religious energy, entirely opposed to the mind of God.
The marks Paul did carry
Paul says he bears the marks of the Lord Jesus in his body — and commentators are careful about what those were. They were scars given to him, not chosen by him, and the image behind the word is ownership:
William Kelly"I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." He had been scourged and put in prison... Just as a slave in older times used to bear the name of his master burnt into his flesh, so, he means, he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus... They were the sufferings that he had endured for the sake of Christ and the gospel.
Revelation shows the same logic running the other way, where a mark on the body is a claim staked by another power:
J. N. DarbyA "mark," a sign upon them, of being a slave — what we should call a brand... for service and worship — as people mark cattle now — a mark of entire possession and authority over. It is a terrible thing to be marked by the devil. Paul suffered for Christ, having been faithful to Him, and he was branded for it. It is the same thought.
The ornament God values
The New Testament passage most often applied to how believers decorate themselves is 1 Peter 3:3-4. The standard offered there is not a rule about materials but a contrast between the visible and the hidden:
William KellyHas not the Christian to please Christ and do all things in His name? Our bodies are to be presented a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; and we are not to be conformed to this age with its changing fashions of luxury and splendour... The real ornament is the hidden man of the heart which He sees, in the incorruption (for outside all is corruptible) of a meek and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is of much price.
Summary
- Command — Leviticus 19:28 forbids cuttings and tattooed marks, grouped with fortune-telling and pagan grooming as "heathenish ways... as opposed to Jehovah."
- Cause — the practices came from mourning rites and honouring other gods; Israel was banned from them because "the Israelites belonged to Jehovah."
- Claim — the same ownership reaches the Christian: bodies "are not our own to do with them as we please," because "we are bought with a price."
- Counterfeit — flesh cut in religious zeal (the prophets of Baal) shows how far religious energy can go while being "entirely opposed to the mind of God"; a mark on the body can be a brand of possession by another.
- Contrast — Paul's marks were wounds received for Christ, like a slave bearing his master's name; the ornament God prices is "the hidden man of the heart," not what is fastened or fashioned on the outside.