To Tattoo or not to tattoo?

I’ve found that the most effective approach in dealing with this issue tends to be if you focus on heart issues as much as possible rather than the tattoo itself. One of my kids has really wanted a tattoo lately, and came to me asking my advice. My response was to say that there is no verse in the Bible forbidding them or commanding them, so the decision must be made via principles. And here are the principles that I see as being applicable:

1)	Motive – People have various different motives for getting tattoos. Rather than assume motives, I just ask the person – be honest with yourself and ask, “What is my motive for doing this?” It may be a desire to be like certain people. If it is, and that crowd of people is a worldly crowd, then desiring to fit in with them is a bad motive. Another motive may be rebellion – or to establish a sense of independence or to break away from what seems to be the stuffiness of a conservative lifestyle. Another motive may be that they saw a particular tattoo and it seemed attractive, so the desire to get one like it is like putting on makeup. Another motive might be the addiction (that addiction to the pain you mentioned is VERY common with both tattoos and piercings). Another motive might be they just want a change. Life is boring, and they want to spice it up a little bit. Another motive might be peer pressure. I list out all the various motives I can think of and then say, “Just be honest with yourself and ask yourself what your motive is, and if that is a godly motive.”
2)	Weaker Brother – Even if all the motives are pure, there may be a weaker brother around you who is tempted by bad motives. Suppose I get a tattoo with no bad motives at all. But a brother in the church who is strongly tempted by the allure of being part of a sinful crowd, and is tempted with the sinful lifestyle of that crowd, and is tempted with caring more about approval from that crowd than approval from God – he sees me get a tattoo and thinks, “Darrell is spiritual, and he can do it. So it must be OK” and he ends up falling into sin. Or maybe a teenager who is tempted with rebellion against her parents, and she sees my example and uses that as an excuse to rebel. 
3)	Presumption – If the motive is sinful then that’s really as far as it needs to go. But if they have a motive that they don’t believe is sinful, there are still some other factors to consider. When a person gets a permanent mark on his body, he is presuming that he knows something that he doesn’t know, namely, that he will always want that tattoo in the future. Many people get tattoos, and later in life regret getting them. (When I opened my email this morning the first one in my inbox was your email, and the second was a Groupon deal for 78% laser tattoo removal. There is a large market for that.) We are not to presume on the future. And basic wisdom and observation of the way things tend to go points to the fact that there is a significant probability that in the future the person will regret getting the tattoo. There is also a significant chance that the person’s spouse will someday no longer like tattoos, and so the tattoo will make the person less attractive to the spouse. I told my kids that getting a tattoo while single is unloving, because they may end up marrying a spouse that is like me – repulsed by tattoos. 
4)	Witness – Even if a person can get a tattoo with a clear conscience regarding motive, and even if #2 is determined to be a non-factor, there still remains the issue of the perception of other people. When people get tattoos in this culture it identifies them with a certain category of people. It’s like walking around with a sign around your neck saying, “I want you to lump me in with the kind of people you think of when you see tattoos.” And in the minds of most people, that category of people is not the righteous (without question, you see more tattoos in prison than in church). 
5)	Wisdom – Having tattoos can create unnecessary hardship in life. The day may come when you desperately need a job, and an employer ends up choosing another applicant over you because of a reaction (maybe even an unwitting reaction) to seeing your tattoos. Again – if you gather a group of 100 very responsible, hard working, honest employees, and you gather a group of 100 slothful, dishonest, lousy employees; you are most likely going to see a lot more tattoos in that second group than in the first. That’s not to say if you get a tattoo you’re a bad employee. It’s just to say that the people in charge of hiring don’t have time to take 6 months to really get to know you. They have to go by impressions in an interview, and your appearance is a huge part of that. And in a similar vein, having tattoos could prevent certain friendships from forming that would have been wonderfully beneficial.