First, we should probably look at the Bible, and mention that there are many of these, for many different religions. People usually refer to the Old and New Testament that are foundation books for the Jewish and Christian faiths, but there are certainly more bibles in the world, such as the Koran, the Rig-Veda, and the Ifa Corpus. These all have things to say about the body, and speak to practices that are allowed or prohibited. In the Old Testament, however, one particular passage in Leviticus, 19:28: “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” This particular passage has caught the most attention from the tattoo culture, particularly in the contemporary so-called Western world.
This passage has been invoked multiple times to prevent people from being buried in an orthodox Jewish cemetery. In some places, it’s still extremely strict, and in others, there is more tolerance. In Peter Trachtenburg’s book, “Seven Tattoos,” he looks at the history and present of global tattoo culture, in lieu of his own tattoos, which will make him unable to be buried in the same cemetery as his father. This examination of tattooing in the world, along with piercing, offers some remarkable and compassionate insight into the art of body modification. It also point up the fact that in terms of Bibles, this passage is the most powerful and explicit one about tattooing, and yet there are many scholars who will argue that this verse refers to a more archaic belief system that is now irrelevant. There is no answer, then, apart from the hermeneutics.
