Posted on 11/01/2013 8:21:51 AM PDT by DouglasKC
The Truth about Tattoos
I had written a hub earlier on 'The Dangers of Tattoos' - which was from purely a medical point of view. The present article is more comprehensive, and should enlighten the open-minded reader about the 'dark truths' behind tattoos.
Historical Aspect
History shows that tattoos have always been associated with paganism, shamanism, heathen (Baal worship), occult mysticism and demonism. The tattoo has never been associated with Christians, until the present decadent religious times. Wherever the Christian faith made its entrance, the tattoo made its exit.
Tattoos where associated with shamans or magic-men (witch-doctors). A shaman is an intermediary between the natural and the supernatural worlds, who is in direct contact with spirits who are invariably evil. Tattooing was often a magical rite, linked to scarification and blood-letting, and the tattooing process involved complex rituals and taboos, known only to the shaman and his tribe. In tattooing the skin is punctured and the blood is drawn. Licking the blood during tattoo operations is not unknown. The puncturing was considered the ‘opening of inlets for evil to enter’. Tattoos were therefore channels for demonic possession. Even today, certain tattoo artists burn incense and light candles during tattoo operations, while others allow ‘demons to guide the tattoo needle over the client’s body’.
Tattoos have always reflected a note of unabashed rebellion and marked deviancy. Hence tattoos were used to mark criminals, adulterers, traitors, deserters, the deviant and the outcast. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans did not tattoo themselves, but they branded slaves and criminals with tattoos. The Latin word for ‘tattoo’ is ‘stigma’ – which is a distinguishing mark cut into the flesh of a slave or a criminal, and was considered a mark of disgrace or reproach. By the early 1900s public opinion against tattoos was so strong that tattooed persons were considered freaks and found mostly in sideshows and circuses.
The Psychological Aspect
It has been observed that criminals, drug addicts, sex perverts and social outlaws are the overwhelming majority of the tattooed. Hard rock bands sport sick and lewd tattoos. Gangs encourage tattoos to instill a sense of ‘belonging’. Tattoos carry a streak of aggression and anti-establishmentarianism and are subversive of morality. Death (inclusive of skulls, snakes, demons, flames) and pornography (lewd pictures, nude figures) are popular themes of tattoos. Psychologists have considered tattoos to be marks of personality disorder which is manifested later in criminal behavior. Low self-esteem, lack of self-control, sadomasochism, bondage, fetishism, bisexuality, antisocial personality, mania and bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia – are reflected in self-inflicted multiple tattoos. Studies have linked tattoos to homosexuality, lesbianism and gross sexual perversion.
Tattooed youth are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse, take to alcohol and drugs, and exhibit violent behavior, and drop out of high school – by as much as 4 times compared to non-tattooed youth.
The Christian Aspect
Carnal Christians side-step the injuction in Leviticus 19;28 by arguing that the commandment is for Old Testament Israel and not for New Testament Christians. Does that mean that bestiality and child sacrifice which are forbidden in Leviticus are for Old Testament Israel and not for New Testament Christians? The New Testament does not have to spell out all sins. Smoking, for instance, is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere; but does it mean that smoking is not a vice or sin?
Reputed Bible scholars and commentators have made in clear that the moral commandments in Leviticus are for all time and not just for Israel in the Old Testament age. Leviticus 19:28 says, ‘You shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. I am the LORD.’ On this Matthew Henry, Merrill Unger and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown have made it amply clear that tattoos are forbidden by God. It is to be noted that while ‘cuttings’ are qualified by the phrase ‘for the dead’, ‘marks’ (or tattoos) have no such qualification. Which means that all tattoos (Christian and otherwise) are evil in God’s eyes.
One of the arguments made by carnal Christians is that Lev 19.27 forbids haircuts. What Leviticus 19.27 is talking about is ‘rounding the corners of your head’ and ‘marring the corners of your beard’. These were heathen practices. One such practice was to cut the hair so that the head resembled a celestial globe. It is called a ‘tonsure’, a practice of heathens to honor their gods. The cutting of the flesh was demonstrated by the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It is not to be forgotten that the demon-possessed man in Mark 5 was in the habit of cutting himself with stones. Cutting and masochistic self-flagellation is also practiced by Muslims during their festival of Muharram. In short, the injunctions in Lev 19:26-28 are a strong condemnation of heathen practices – witchcraft, astrology, cutting, tattooing, tonsures, etc.
In 1 Samuel 15:23 we are told that ‘rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft’. Tattoos sported by today’s youth have been the mark of rebellion and hatred of authority (besides, rejection of all moral values). In God’s eyes, the sin of tattooing is like witch-craft. We have already seen the origins of tattoos in witch-craft and shamanism. It remains to be researched whether this ‘witch-craft’ has also led to widespread demon-possession. No, tattoos are not ‘body decoration’; they have nothing to do with fashion and beauty; but rather they are sinister signs of moral decay and infiltration by evil spirits into modern society.
Derbyshire wrote about this too, and sees the proliferation of tatoos as a symptom of deep society illness. I agree.
Jesus has His name written on His thigh.
Yeah cool, but my reasons for being anti-tatted are simple. They don’t improve with age. Tastes change. They reduce earning potential over a lifetime. They reduce the pool of available mates. People change. They are addictive. And, of course, they scream out~ Look at me! Isn’t it strange to think that a person looks at a part of their body, and the notion comes over them... Wow, look at that arm! That thing needs some dressing up!
Many are memorials. Women dye their hair every six weeks. Any tattoo owners over 70?
Nothing transforms a pretty girl into an ugly one faster than a tattoo and a foul mouth. They seem to often pair up.
And vote
Pagans have been known to vote
*shrug*
Just don’t drink too much dihydrogen monoxide.
I have a relative who is covered with them. She also has autoimmune problems. Of course she thinks one has nothing to do with the other.
Now.
I really do believe this bizarre tattoo trend is indicative of the state of mental health of our society.
What a stupid article. We don’t judge people by their outside, but by their inside.
Tattooes do not age very well. Ever seen one on an older person? They fade. They stretch. They sag....can only imagine one on a sagging boob. All of these young people running out ang getting tattooes are going to be in for a rude awakening when they discover that these things don’t age very well. In fact they age the skin. And they look horrible on wrinkled and dry skin.
I think the real argument is that we are to be “separate from the world.”
The forbidding of those practices (tattoos, drinking blood, etc) were pagan or worldly rituals for which Israel was to be set apart.
Deuteronomy 14:1-2: “You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor 1shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
It is a fairly safe assumption that tattooing is still considering a worldly activity. While the Old Testament may be the law and the New Testament grace, the NT clearly states that Christians are to be in the world but not of it.
James 4:1-5: Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
As Freud once said, “Sometimes a good cigar is only a cigar.” A lot of tattoos are, or used to be, only the remnant of an out of control night in Tijuana. A reminder of something you can’t remember.
I’m still not sure how smoking went from being a thing that some people do to being morally wrong. Whatever.
93 octane will be a sin too, soon.
It sounds like you want to avoid getting a tattoo. I don’t have any, myself.
However, as a very conventional frumpy sort of person, I think it’s better for a man to look at a girl’s arm and think, “Hey, a P.J. O’Rourke fan!” than to look at her breasts and think, “I want to **** that!”
I certainly do. I'm alive because of it.
When I was a child only men who had been in prison had tats. Then it was only criminals, whores and seamen or military. Now my prim and proper sister in law has one as does my daughter. yuck!
Plus I see these giant, young fat chicks covering themselves with them.
Have they just given up? Accepted that obesity is their destiny? Never plan to try to be healthier or more attractive?
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