What does the Bible say about tattoos?

This practice was forbidden in the law, as also was making any mark in the flesh. It was customary among the heathen, 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.

In verse 26 the prohibition against eating anything with blood is linked with that against divination or soothsaying, for the first speaks of God's rights, the second that we are not to allow Satan any rights over us.

Verses 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.

Then 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. So too the devoting of a daughter to whoredom, as not immoral only but "profane." So as His sabbaths were to be kept, and His sanctuary reverenced, they were to shun necromancers and soothsayers as polluting (vers. 26-31). The same authority of Jehovah, which proscribed those heathen enormities, calls for honour to the hoary head and the face of the old man, coupling them with the fear of "thy God" (32). And what strikingly cuts off by anticipation the narrow and base pride of the Talmud, "a stranger" that might sojourn in their land was not only to be allowed there unmolested, but to be loved as one born among them. "Thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] Jehovah your God" (33, 34). How touching to remember their oppression in Egypt, not for resentment but for compassion!

In verse 26 the prohibition against eating anything with blood is linked with that against divination or soothsaying, for the first speaks of God's rights, the second that we are not to allow Satan any rights over us.

Verses 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.

Ye are the children of the Lord your God. Because God had chosen them to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the other nations, they were to be an holy people. To them belongeth still "the adoption" (Rom. 9:4). God called Israel His firstborn son and that nation holds that place, in the divine purpose, among the nations. Sonship, in the New Testament, bestowed upon the individual believer, who is possessed by the Spirit of Sonship (the Holy Spirit) and who is an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, is infinitely higher, than Israel 's national and earthly calling. Therefore our responsibility is so much greater. The children of the Lord were not to participate in the sinful customs of the heathen, who have no hope. No disfigurement as mentioned in the first verse was permitted. The Lord whom they served is a Lord of life; they belonged wholly to Him; they were not their own. To sorrow like those who have no hope is also forbidden in the New Testament (1 Thess. 4:13). Then follows once more the reminder concerning the clean and the unclean. See Leviticus 11 and the annotations. The laws concerning the food Israel was to eat and to abstain from were given in Leviticus to Moses and Aaron; in Deuteronomy the whole congregation hears these instructions. A number of animals are also mentioned in Deuteronomy, which we do not find in Leviticus. Thus their separation is once more emphasized. They belonged to a holy Lord and were to be an holy people. We have for our food the living Bread, which came down from heaven. And as we feed on Christ, abiding in Him, we become also like Him. It has been well said "for a Christian to participate in the vanities and follies of a sinful world would be to use a typical phrase, like an Israelite eating that which had died by itself." How sad the condition of the great majority of those who profess Christianity, who run after this present evil age and are conformed to it!

Now, most evidently, it is God's prerogative to declare how His children ought to conduct themselves, and it is their high privilege and holy responsibility to seek, in all things, to meet His gracious approval. "Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves." They were not their own; they belonged to Him, and therefore they had no right to cut themselves or disfigure their faces for the dead. Nature, in its pride and self-will, might say, "Why may we not do like other people? What harm can there be in cutting ourselves, or making a baldness between our eyes? It is only an expression of grief, an affectionate tribute to our loved departed ones. Surely there can be nothing morally wrong in such a suited expression of sorrow!

To all this there was one simple but conclusive answer, "Ye are the children of the Lord your God" This fact altered everything. The poor ignorant and uncircumcised Gentiles around them might cut and disfigure themselves, inasmuch as they knew not God, and were not in relationship to Him. But as for Israel, they were on the high and holy ground of nearness to God, and this one fact was to give tone and character to all their habits. They were not called upon to adopt or refrain from any particular habit or custom, in order to be the children of God. This would be, as we say, beginning at the wrong end; but, being His children, they were to act as such.

"Thou art an holy people to the Lord thy God." He does not say, "Ye ought to be an holy people." How could they ever make themselves an holy people, or a peculiar people to Jehovah? Utterly impossible. If they were not His people, no effort of theirs could ever make them such. But God, in His sovereign grace, in pursuance of His covenant with their fathers, had made them His children, made them a peculiar people above all the nations that were upon the earth. Here was the solid foundation of Israel's moral edifice. All their habits and customs, all their doings and ways, their food and their clothing, what they did and what they did not do — all was to flow out of the one grand fact, with which they had no more to do than with their natural birth, namely, that they actually were the children of God, the people of His choice, the people of His own special possession.

The dignity of Israel's outward relationship to God as sons required them to act with proper dignity. The ungodly nations practiced such things as cutting themselves and shaving the front of their head to show how they respected people who had died. This was vain hypocrisy, a show of religiousness intended to draw attention to themselves. The Lord Jesus reproved even the loud weeping and wailing of people around the house of Jairus at his daughter's death (Mk.5:38-39). Cutting oneself, shaving the hair, weeping and wailing, can do nothing for the person who has died. In fact, if it is a believer who has died, this is really cause for quiet thankfulness that he or she is with the Lord. If an unbeliever, it is too late then to be of any help, though hearts should be subdued before God. It is perfectly right that one should weep in feeling the loss of a loved one, as the Lord Jesus wept in sympathy with Mary and Martha (Jn.11:32-35), but to put on an outward show is repulsive.

The Apostle has almost finished: "For the rest (probably means, For the rest of time …; From this time forward. …; From henceforth …) let no one cause troubles to me, for I am bearing in my body the brands of Jesus." How much trouble, how much anguish of soul, those Galatians had caused to Paul. Now he must say to those who at one time would have plucked out their eyes for him: "Let no man cause trouble to me." It is the same expression that the Lord used in Matthew 26:10 to the disciples, about the woman who broke the flask of very precious ointment, while He sat at meat in the house of Simon the leper. These law teachers everywhere were always causing trouble to the Apostle. What brands did they bear as proof of the Master to whom they belonged? None whatever. Circumcision was not "the brand of Jesus." Circumcision is the brand of the law. But by it, and by preaching circumcision, they escaped the persecution which had covered Paul's body with scars: scars from being stoned, scars from Roman rods, scars from Jewish stripes, weariness and painfulness, watchings and fastings, hunger and thirst, had all left their marks on his body; not to speak of the daily load of care caused by "all the churches." What a load the Galatian churches were! And these all left their mark. (See 2 Cor. 11:25-28.) These were the brands that marked out for ever whose he was, and whom he served (Acts 27:23). Strange, is it not, how few there are today who bear in their body the brands of Jesus? Perhaps it is that we are too much like the law teachers, afraid of persecution for the cross. Paul was not ashamed of these brands. Some of the Jewish refugees from Germany have been branded on their foreheads with "J" (for Jew) and many are ashamed of this brand. Paul gloried in the brands of Jesus that he bore. In the days of old, a Roman master would brand his slaves to show whose they were, and whom they served, and a brand was a sign of slavery and disgrace, but not so to Paul. Read the first verse of the Epistle to the Romans, the first of Paul's epistles in your Bible: "Paul, slave of Jesus Christ. …" I love those words. They tell me that the Lord Jesus Christ had bought Paul, body, soul and spirit; he belonged utterly and altogether to Jesus Christ, as much as — indeed more than — any slave in Rome belonged to his Roman master. Paul gloried in those words: "slave of Jesus Christ," and he gloried in the marks he bore, the brands of Jesus.

It is very rare that the Apostle uses the holy name of Jesus alone. Perhaps he uses it in this way here, to remind us that our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Man, JESUS, also bore brands — the marks of scourging — "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Isa. 52:14. And in His hands and feet and side, He still bears those marks that we will gaze upon in glory, with wonder, love and adoration.

The last time we saw a man who caused trouble (chapter 5). Now Paul says, “Let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus.”He did not need to be troubled as he had enough trouble already. In 2 Corinthians 11, for example, we find a whole list of his physical sufferings because of his allegiance to Christ. These were the brands that counted, not the fact that he was circumcised or not, that had no value at all. (1) In antiquity a soldier was tattooed with the name of his commander, his general. In the same way Paul had the brand of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Lord Jesus Christ was his general, his commander, and this was a sign of allegiance. The fact that Paul had these brands, these stigmata’s in his body was more important than circumcision. (2) The bond-slave was often marked with the name of his master. This is another example. Paul had had all kinds of physical sufferings, he had been stoned several times, he had been shipwrecked and many other things had happened to him and these marks could be seen in his body. This is what really counted before God. You, teachers, talk about physical things; well let us talk about these things. Paul said he was a bondman and these physical signs showed that. (3) He was also seen as a criminal, not a real criminal, of course, but he was considered as a criminal in the eyes of the Jews (in Ephesians 4 we see that he was in bonds because of the testimony). In the case of criminals, these marks or brands were to expose their crimes. What was Paul’s crime, if we may use this language? He preached Christ and that is why the religious leaders wanted to get rid of him, but he said that these brands were very precious, for they showed his allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and nobody could change that. (4) Fourthly, every priest of any religion had this kind of mark in his body, to show his consecration to his god. Here we see Paul’s commitment, his consecration, his devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in all these four different settings we see these brands in his body, that was what indeed counted.

Chapter 14 forbids that the people, as being the children of the living God, should imitate the profane customs which indicated the devotedness of idolaters to the impure beings they worshipped. God had chosen Israel for Himself. Neither were they to defile themselves by eating abominable things. They were a holy people. The tithes and all the firstfruits were to be offered to God.