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.
Have you been to San Diego or Los Angeles in the last ten years?
Actually, when I think about it, most of the people I’ve looked up to in life are or were smokers. Maybe I’m a poor and uneducated person.
It would be better if you would challenge the facts.
They might very well share your values NOW, but it is quite apparent that they didn't when they got the tattoo. That was my point. I just didn't make if very well.
Every commandment ever given by our loving Father was given for our benefit. They were meant to help us. There are a few commandments, such as dietary laws, that were modified as time progressed and civilization became more cultured. But these modifications are few.
If God doesn't want us to make a mark on ourselves, then we should be asking ourselves how is this for our benefit. Instead, it is our nature to question God's motives or to justify doing the things God feels would not be in our best interest.
She was a real PITA to deal with so the whole thing may have been a subtle pun that I didn’t get at the time.
Maybe it's a by-product of day care kids? Didn't get enough attention in the formative years?
But, I see young guys with these heifers. Muffins tops hanging our of their jeans, tattoos--I am sorry but a life of solitude and just getting the job done myself (if ya get my drift) seems more appealing.
I live there, being a smoker here is definitely looked down on as a weakness and ignorant. Notice that even you pointed out that many of the people you looked up to quit smoking, something that is more difficult for the less capable type people, and we know that, we are fully aware of the weakness today (and have been for decades).
Smoking cigarettes is down to about 19% of people, and they are not evenly distributed, it is the poor and uneducated that haven't moved on.
About 70% of smokers admit that they want to quit. Who do you think succeeds, the very groups that already have low smoking rates?
Ok. Winston Churchill was uneducated because he smoked...Right?
Andy Griffith was an idiot because he smoked.
This article has all the hilarity of a Jack Chick comic strip.
Come-on dude. You want everybody to stop doing everything thats bad for you.
I take it breathing is at the top of your list.
Yet, I bet the author wears clothes made of more than one fiber, eats shellfish & cuts his hair.
Only to the ill-mannered, the helpless fad followers and the junk science crowd.
Now you are just making things up, and making post after post saying nothing.
If you have an issue with something in post 96, please try to say what it is.
Ok. I don’t give a crap if folks smoke or not. I certainly do not tie it to intelligence. It is more of a rebellion factor regardless of education or wealth.
Get real ansell2
Ill-mannered is almost always the smoker, or it would be someone berating the smoker for no reason, so you missed on that.
The dying of tobacco use isn’t because of a new fad, it has been happening for decades, cigarette smoking just seems silly today, that is why cigarette smoking is becoming so rare.
Just do some “empirical” observation, I live in an area where smoking is probably frowned on rather strongly at all.
Go to an office building, do you still see a lot or maybe a number of people go out for cigarette breaks?? I would wager so on a rather widespread basis. It is what it is.
Do you just sit home in your hoover and post drivel?
Get into the real world and please stop telling me to keep the speed on low.
Smoking is rare among the educated.
Among adults over age 25, those with General Education Development (GED) diploma have the highest prevalence of current smoking (44%), followed by those with 9 to 11 years of education (33.3%). Those who had an undergraduate degree (11.4%) or graduate degree (6.2%) had the lowest smoking prevalence.
1 • Lower education levels are associated with significantly higher rates of smoking during pregnancy. Nearly 24% of women with 9-11 years of education smoked while pregnant compared with 15% of those with 12 years of education and 1.5% of those with 16 or more years of education.5
Ooops, I meant to address that previous post to all.
What is interesting is I would suppose some people would argue the Bible likewise disses smoking.
“Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate that you just hate to make him wait but you’ve just got to have another cigarette.”
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