Last week, Kansas City hosted its fourth Tattoo Arts Convention. Hundreds of people gathered at a downtown luxury hotel to admire and create images permanently inked on skin. I don’t categorically reject tattoos as a form of personal expression. I might have attended the convention out of sheer curiosity about this art, which now approaches near-universal popularity in the U.S. judging by the number of TATTOO storefronts in my neighborhood alone.
No doubt I could view any number of tattoo images and videos online, except for the possibility of being spied on for every link clicked, and subsequently advertised to. I jokingly tell friends that the only reason I don’t have a tattoo is that I haven’t yet decided what I want to display on my body forever. And then there’s this: when I see smooth young skin decorated with colorful pictures or inscriptions, I can’t help thinking of those same arms and thighs thirty years down the road, when the inevitable sag of middle age wrinkles the message. The spirit of the thought may remain firm for life, but the substrate? Probably not. Also I’ve read that acquiring tattoos can be habit-forming. After the first tattoo, the mind becomes preoccupied with where and what the next one will be.
Tattoos give evidence of human association worldwide. When I lived in New Zealand more than fifty years ago, I first encountered the fearsome Maori facial tattoos, and the carved images of those faces, that created cultural identity and threatened the enemy. Japanese irezumi originated thousands of years ago, evolving in both subject and significance to this day. What has sparked today’s surge of participation in this ancient practice? For one thing, human beings long to belong.
At the Community Blood Center the other day, I filled out the screening document, which enquires about tattoos and piercings. The person taking my history bore on her forearm a tattoo featuring a scrolled heart and the words FAITH HOPE LOVE. Clearly she associates with a Christian community and holds those words in reverence.
I do, too.
However, I think I’ll just stick with Romans 2:15: Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. (Good News Bible). As to that, I might mention that any Christian contemplating a tattoo—especially those given to using “proof texts” (i.e. snippets of scripture) to make a point about, say, homosexuality—should check out Leviticus 19:28: Do not…put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. (New International Version)
Perhaps contemplating my future tattoo will lead me to consider what it is I value most deeply, without ever actually inking it on my ankle.