72. Not to tattoo the skin.

Status: Active

"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." ~ Leviticus 19:28

This commandment forbids those who believe in the Lord from permanently marking the skin with tattoos.  There are many practical reasons to not get a tattoo (i.e. expense, risk of infection, diminished employment prospects, physical pain).  According to the Lord, getting a tattoo makes a person unholy, and therefore prohibits such action.

This reiterated in the New Testament where the body is compared to the Temple:

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." ~ 1 Cor. 3:16-17

Rosaus J. Rushdoony made the following comments regarding tattoos:

"Tattooing was practiced religiously to indicate that one adhered to or belonged to a god; it also indicated that man was a slave, that be belonged to a lord or owner.  The believer, as a free man in Christ, indicates Christ's lordship by obedience, not by servile markings: the body is kept holy and clean unto the Lord.  The persistence of a mark of slavery among men is indicative of man's perversity." (The Institutes of Biblical Law, p.223)

The Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley also reiterated the Lord's disapproval of tattooing in a recent speech.

Those who violate this commandment have must humble themselves before the Lord, and repent.  There are no commandments however, that authorize punishment in the civil realm for those who receive tattoos.