Tattoos Can Pose Health Risks

Thanks for the links. Tattoos seem popular here among even rural people, which surprises me. A lot of men had them after World War II but now they are widespread among women and they are larger and cover more area and people have many more than just one.

The heathen like to decorate the body.

 

So do increasing numbers of Christians, it appears.

 

That has no Scriptural foundation whatsoever. I have never gotten a tatoo, but it has absolutely nothing to do with salvation. Salvation has to do with faith in Jesus Christ's completed work on the cross. This is the same mindset as those who equate dancing, gambling, smoking, and drinking with salvation. Now, in another thread, we have a new one, singing.

I know many, many Christians with tatoos, and that being the case, tatoos are not limited to the lost. The Christian life is becoming more like Christ daily and following Him. It is not memorizing a bunch of nonScriptural rules and obeying them.

 

I can give you a third....

...I believe that some tattoos [depending on the message it is meant to show] can be a portal or an entrance for Satanic oppression or even possession.

Consider a person inscribing a pentagram on their skin? Or mystic religious symbols such as Yin-Yang? Or tattoos that give glory to the devil or evil, or signs of evil like swastikas or even the numbers "666" could be an opening for something more than skin art meant to send a message or to impress others? Or how about drawings of "Ankh's," a "dream-catcher," the "cabala," an "All-seeing eye," the "Blair-witch triangle," the "Up-side down cross," a "Labyrinth," or a skull, to name a few. Even the "free-mason" sign has evil connotations attached to it, and when it is permanently inscribed on one's skin, what does that say about that person?

If nothing else, tattoos could most definitely signal to the world and the evil within this world that the person worships or gives high regard [idol worship] to the things they have freely allowed [paid for most of the time] someone else to place on their skin.

And then we have these words from Exodus 20:4 to consider. Could the term "Graven image" be conceived as a tattoo? Her the words of God about graven images, "No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments."

It is my opinion [BTW - this is a great thread and topic] that a person needs to be concerned as much with the potential physical health problems attached with tattoos as much as the negative, spiritual connotations of tattoos. For me, they both warrant treading careful in those waters! :type:

 

Well, of course, there is a Scriptural foundation for leaving this barbaric practice to the heathen. It starts with the Law: Leviticus 19:28 (KJV) Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD.

Jeremiah 16:6 (KJV) Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall [men] lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

Jeremiah 41:5 (KJV) That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, [even] fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring [them] to the house of the LORD.

If Christians have tattoos, and they do, it is because they admire the heathen and want to decorate the body as the heathen do.

As for your reference to smoking, for many years I have agreed with those who say that you can smoke and still go to Heaven and a lot sooner, too.

 

It is a startling fad. Many people who have been in prison have practically their whole bodies tattooed. Many homosexuals also have numerous tattoos, at least some of them in downtown Indianapolis. And many people of all classes also have them. One very rich family told me that their son had been a missionary to a foreign country and was heartbroken at the poverty there. Then one day they were upset that there son was getting a tattoo, but the next day they told me that it was a "Christian" tattoo because he got the name of a book in the Bible tattooed on him. You wouldn't think that sons of multimillionaires would be getting tattoos.

It seems to me that it is medical foolishness.

 

Without Appearing Judgmental...

...Tattoos will always remind me of carnival people. You may or may not remember these images of those folks, but I sure do, and I also quite vividly remember the hint of body odor; missing teeth; packs of cigarettes stuffed under the sleeve of their t-shirts, tons of foul language emanating from their mouths, and the challenge to make sure I never ended up working in that line of employment.

Like I said, I don't mean to judge carnival folks, as I'm sure there are many great people working in carnivals, it's just that tattoos make me think of that line of work [call it stereotyping, or type casting; that image has always stuck with me]. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Yes, I recall the carnival people. I am a senior citizen. I remember when Ringling Bros, Barnum, and Bailey came to Logansport via train and paraded out to the fairgrounds from the train depot. Of course, nearby Peru, Indiana, was winter headquarters for some circuses a long time ago and is still called Circus City. And then the carny people came to the County Fair in the early fifties. Now they travel to our State Fair. They have RVs, etc. Some of them are very nice but I would not want their life.

I think they are still much as you paint them--bad teeth, chain smoking, etc. By the way, I think that you are correct that tattoos have something to do with idols and paganism. Matthew Henry comments in part on Leviticus 19:28:

"The rites and ceremonies by which they expressed their sorrow at their funerals must not be imitated, v. 28. They must not make cuts or prints in their flesh for the dead; for the heathen did so to pacify the infernal deities they dreamt of, and to render them propitious to their deceased friends. Christ by his sufferings has altered the property of death, and made it a true friend to every true Israelite; and now, as there needs nothing to make death propitious to us (for, if God be so, death is so of course), so we sorrow not as those that have no hope. Those whom the God of Israel had set apart for himself must not receive the image and superscription of these dunghill deities."

God's richest blessings to you and yours.

 

Never got one, and way to old to think about it. However, it is one of those issues that I would have never done saved or lost. Tatoos do not define Christian character. Jesus Christ does. The reason I do not smoke is health. The reason I do not dance is I look like a clutz. The reason I do not gamble is I have better things to do with my money. The reason I do not drink is that it is a bad witness to my (grown) children. It would be the same saved or lost. Many like to attach these things to being a Christian, when in fact, they have absolutely nothing to do with it.

The Holy Spirit guides us in all things. I do not memorize 603 laws in Leviticus and obey them.

 

Saturnneptune, I go right down the line with you except that I think gambling is a sin--the Roman soldiers face-to-face with Jesus gambled for his clothes--and I agree that getting a tattoo is not medically good. If you already have one, you can still get into Heaven with it, of course. Some of them can be helped by spending a lot of money with a plastic surgeon. But I still say that I do not want to look like a heathen and that I feel no need to decorate myself or put "Mom" on my bicep or do anything normally done by pagans. The only reason that I drink coffee is because the pope said it was okay after the Moslems ran away from Vienna 500 years ago and left it behind....

God's richest blessings to you and yours.

 

Amen!

CMG....great post...particularly the verse in Leviticus 19:28. This is NOT a matter that relates to salvation or being saved but when the scriptures say a believer SHOULD NOT do something then being saved by grace does NOT nullify the truth....just means we ought to obey it because we have "changed masters".....and CAN....and SHOULD...if and because we love God and want to be pleasing to Him. There are some practices that the Bible clearly teaches against and we should live in OBEDIENCE to the Word of God....and the God of the Word!:thumbsup:

On the smoking thing...I always heard it said that smoking won't make you go to hell...but it will make you SMELL like ya been there!:laugh:

Bro.Greg

 

Thank you, Gregory Perry Sr., for your kind words on a chilly winter day here in central Indiana with a few inches of snow on the ground!

 

My Pleasure...

No problem Brother...always glad to offer a word of encouragement! I always try to "shed more light than heat"....but in your case maybe some heat might be in order as well!:smilewinkgrin:

On another note......it is always baffling and sad to me that so many Christians in our current dispensation have such a problem accepting instruction on godly living that would contribute to producing a life that would be both pleasing to our precious Lord and a clear and seperated testimony to a dark world that is in rapidly increasing death-spiral. Instead..it seems that the majority (even IN the church) get defensive about their behaviour and want to protect their "right" to act and do as they please. I personally think we ought (as Christians) to give God the "benefit" of any doubt about our faith and our manner of living and always "err" on the side of caution in what we say and do knowing that we live in a "watching" world. Amen?

Have a great day...God Bless You...and throw another log on the fire!:godisgoodall the time!)

Bro.Greg :saint:

 

"If Christians have tattoos, and they do, it is because they admire the heathen and want to decorate the body as the heathen do."

Oh wise one I have one thing to say to your comment - :laugh::laugh::laugh: Oh, I guess it was three things.

With the broadest of brushes you paint a scene showing the broadest of unfounded accusation. Off to bed :sleeping_2: and hopeful my dreams are less hilarious so I can sleep.

 

Look at it this way, this is the time of life to get a tattoo. At our age, the skin cannot stretch or fade anymore than it already is. LOL To answer your question, no, I have no tattoos.

 

Glad To Hear That

SN...I am relieved to know you don't have any. I just can't see how they would possibly be pleasing to the Lord. But since you bring up the "age" issue...the thought occurred to me that if we got one at this age.....well...imagine if you will having a tattoo of a cluster of grapes applied on....well... pick a spot....in not too many years it would look like a bunch of PRUNES:laugh::smilewinkgrin:! I remember back when these things started getting real popular with the kids my neice went (without my brothers permission) and had a large butterfly applied to the lower mid-section of her back (they call those "tramp-stamps")....boy was he ever mad at her(and none of them are even saved:tear. He got so mad that he grounded her for a month but what made it funny was the look she got on her face when he told her how stupid she would look with that when she got OLD. She asked what he meant by that and he told her that when she got old and wrinkled it would quit looking like a butterfly and look instead like a CONDOR!!! She was madddddd! The rest of us thought it was pretty funny at the time.
Pray for them....they need to be saved (tattoos don't have anything to do with being saved or not).

Bro.Greg:saint: