I had an interesting experience today. I got a tattoo at a local shop called Dead to Sin (no website; but they have a Facebook page). I was impressed that the shop had so much of a Christian tone to it. Christian with a bit of a gothic flavor; but nevertheless Christian.
As I was receiving my very small tattoo, the entrepreneur asked if he could expect me to come in for more work. I said it was very unlikely. He said maybe I could have a favorite Bible verse printed somewhere. I said it is very unlikely that I would be getting further tattoos; but if I had a tattoo of a Bible verse, I would probably commission the one from Leviticus about not marking your body (Leviticus 19:28). I was joking around, as, by my very presence, I do not believe that verse to be applicable in a contemporary context. But these guys had apparently heard about that verse repeatedly in the past. They had a little sermon prepared complete with quotes of verses from other parts of the Bible!
"That's a mark for the dead," said my artist Jesse. "It is something the ancients did when they were mourning for the dead. They may have actually used the ashes of a funeral pyre to make the marks permanent." This man was on a roll. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. "When you get to Isaiah, there is a certain mark on the hand that is a good thing!" (Isaiah 44:5?)
I do not know if he applied those verses properly; but it was interesting that he approached the question from a Biblical and Christian perspective; and this time was not the first time he had been challenged with the morality of getting a tattoo. My view is that any Bible verse that is invoked to address the morality of getting a tattoo is being misused. Two can play that game.
I think the lesson here is that this thing Jesus built called "church" is populated by a lot of different kinds of folks.
Yes, interesting post Neil! :-)
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