Christians, Tattoos and Piercings

Now there have always been talk about whether or not a Christian should get piercings or tattoos and of course everyone has a right to his or her own view on this.  And I have mine.

Leviticus 19: 28 says this about it: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos.  I am the Lord."

When you read this you might see it as God saying that, ya, you cannot have tattoos or piercings (even though it says nothing about piercings specifically, it does count).  But I'm just assuming here that no one really wants to cut themselves, willingly, right?

But here it is, you need to look at the whole of the book.  You see the Jews were just getting settled in the promised land and the pagan nations around them marked their skin with tattoos and piercings (cutting the skin to put something in it basically).  They did this for their worship and ritual reasons and God did not want His people to be like that since they were supposed to be unlike the other nations around them, and plus it's not like the His people actually listened to Him much, but anyways.  That is why God says this.

But let's look at now.  Of course God isn't going to change is mind about these things but it all has to do with what's going on in the world around you and the reasons for you choices.  If your fourteen, under the legal age for getting piercings without parental consent (here in the U.S. anyway) and you go and get say a lip ring on your own then ya, that's not acceptable if your Christian.  But if your an adult or have parental consent and get a tattoo or piercing in the sense that you are honoring God then go for it!  It's all about the reasons for doing these things.  Like me for example.  I want a lip ring and nose ring and am fifteen, but my parents said not till I am an adult.  So I am honoring God by obeying them as He told me to and will wait till I am older and then make sure I am doing it for the right reasons in honoring God.  So ya a Christian can have piercings and tattoos I think.  In fact I know a youth group leader for middle schoolers at my church who is almost covered in tattoos and has a few piercings and nothing about it is dishonoring to God.

Also on youtube I had been checking out some videos and, I can't remember who this was, but it was a video of this girl talking about comments she had gotten for previous video posts.  One was this guy telling her (I think her name on youtube was darkfairy or something. . .) that she shouldn't get a tattoo because our bodies are temples that God dwels in and why would she want to ruin it.  Yes our bodies are temples that God does dwel in but as she respond many people see tattoos as art and if her body is a temple then she should be able to decorate it with art work.  I have to say that I agree with that.  Piercings and tattoos are a form of art work to the body and like I said, if it's honoring God than there isn't anything wrong with that I don't think.

And plus now a days these things are getting to be pretty common and people don't do it for the same reasons they did back in the times of when the Jews lived in the promised land.

Sincerely,
Angel of Darkness

Listening to: Faster, Faster by Esterlyn (just one of those randoms songs that gets stuck in my head!)