Tattoos

[Ray]

Eze 16:12(ESV)
And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

Since the LORD gave Israel a nose ring and called it Beautiful, should All Christian women get a nose ring? This is a real question

 

[Parakaleo]

I have often wondered how tattooing could not be considered a violation of the Sixth Commandment. Sins forbidden include any injuring of ourselves. If I don't have the liberty to pick up a shard of glass and aimlessly cut my body, what would make me think I have the liberty to puncture my skin and inject ink into its layers for no medical benefit? There are even studies that point to harmful long-term effects of tattooing.

 

[Stephen L Smith]

I believe there are Scriptural arguments against things like tattoos. These arguments are part of a basic argument from the many verses that condemn boastful pride and worship of the creature. It seems to me that a tattoo is nothing more than a way of saying, "Look at me!", which is an encouragement to glory in the flesh versus glorying in the Lord.

Tattoos also send many mixed messages that may be beyond your ability to control. You may think that your tattoo shows people where you stand, but the tattoo may show others that you have no respect for your own body or the teachings of the Lord. Are you willing to risk all of this?

Lastly, how can disfiguring the only body God gave you add to God's glory?

From a biblically aesthetic perspective, I usually trot out the question, "Ever heard of gilding the lily?" Jesus talks about the lily as being more glorious than Solomon in all his splendor, and yet it comes to us as God gave it. Is it possible for a person getting a tattoo NOT to be saying, "My body is not beautiful enough the way God gave it to me, I have to improve it"? Would this not then fall under Peter's injunction about making our adornment be not so much outward adornment, but the inward adornment? Of course, Peter is talking to women at that point, but I would hardly think he would then say, "Now men, you feel free to go right on and make all your handsomeness consist in outward adornment." What's good for the hen is good for the rooster.

Ultimately, the desire to become more beautiful needs to be channeled into a sanctifying manner that is primarily concerned with the soul, and yet also sees the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and therefore in need of care and nourishment (we do NOT want to go down Plato's blind alley of seeing the body as evil). What we will find is something strange: as the soul becomes more beautiful through God's sanctifying grace, the body becomes more beautiful as well. Kudos to Tyler for mentioning God's mark: we already have a mark of belonging, and it is baptism.

For me, the above is very edifying