What does the Bible say about tattoos?

What the Bible says, and where

Leviticus 19 belongs to a block of laws about holiness, and verse 28 sits in company. The verse immediately before it addresses the edges of the hair and the beard. Verse 28 itself pairs cutting the flesh for the dead with putting marks on the body. The verses around them deal with divination, mediums and the religious practices of the peoples Israel lived among. That context is why many commentators read the prohibition as aimed at mourning rituals and at marks of dedication to a god, rather than at decoration in general. Other readers take it as a plain instruction about the body, full stop.

Everything else people quote comes by analogy, because no other passage addresses tattooing as a practice. Paul writes that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that you are not your own, which is the backbone of the argument against. On the other side, Isaiah has God say the people are engraved on the palms of his hands, Paul says he bears the marks of Jesus on his body, and Revelation describes a rider with a name written on his thigh. None of those is a ruling about tattoos. All of them get used as one.

Verses that come up, on both sides

• Leviticus 19:28, the only verse in the Hebrew Bible that mentions marking the skin.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20, that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and you are not your own.
• 1 Peter 3:3 and 4, on outward adornment and inward character, used in the modesty argument.
• Isaiah 49:16, where God says the people are engraved on the palms of his hands.
• Galatians 6:17, where Paul says he bears on his body the marks of Jesus.
• Revelation 19:16, where the rider has a name written on his robe and on his thigh.

Are tattoos a sin? Why Christians read it differently

Most Protestant and evangelical teaching holds that the holiness and ritual laws of Leviticus were given to Israel under a covenant that Christians read as fulfilled, citing Acts, Romans, Galatians and Colossians. On that reading verse 28 is not a standing rule, and the questions that remain are about motive and content: what the image says, whether it is an act of vanity, whether a minor is defying a parent, and how it affects the way you are read by people outside the church. A pastor who holds this view will usually ask what the tattoo is before asking whether to have one.

The other reading takes the body as God's property and permanent decoration as a claim you are not entitled to make on it. Churches holding that line cite the same Corinthians passage and the instruction about adornment in 1 Peter. Roman Catholic teaching has no general prohibition and the catechism does not mention tattooing, so the matter sits with conscience and with a priest. Orthodox practice depends on the jurisdiction and the priest, and in Egypt and Ethiopia it includes tattooing as an act of faith.

The Christians who have always tattooed

Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt wear a small cross on the inner wrist, often done in childhood, as a mark of identity. It has been kept up through long periods when being identifiable as a Christian carried a cost, which is the point of putting it somewhere a sleeve does not cover. In parts of Ethiopia, Orthodox Christians have worn cross tattoos on the neck, hands or forehead for generations.

Pilgrims have been marking the journey to Jerusalem for centuries, and a Coptic family of tattooists, the Razzouks, still works in the Old City using wooden stamps handed down the family. Among Catholic Croats in Bosnia there was a tradition of tattooing crosses and geometric marks on the hands and forearms, reportedly in part as a mark of Catholic identity. Anyone who tells you Christianity has always been against tattoos has not looked very far.

Jewish law, and the cemetery myth

In Jewish law the prohibition is treated as binding. Maimonides discusses it in the Mishneh Torah and connects it to idolatrous practice, later codes follow, and Orthodox and most Conservative authorities hold that tattooing is forbidden. Reform and Reconstructionist communities generally note the traditional prohibition and treat the decision as a personal one. A tattoo received under coercion has never been counted against the person who received it, which is the standard answer regarding camp numbers.

The belief that a tattoo bars burial in a Jewish cemetery is extremely widespread and has no clear basis in Jewish law. Most burial societies and cemeteries do not refuse on that ground. Individual cemetery boards set their own rules, so if this matters to your family, ask that cemetery and your rabbi rather than trusting the rumour. Some descendants of Holocaust survivors have had a relative's camp number tattooed as a memorial, a practice that has been discussed openly and is not settled within Jewish communities.

Islam, and what wudu has to do with it

The majority position across the Sunni schools is that tattooing is forbidden. The ruling rests on hadith that condemn the practice and on the broader principle against permanently altering the creation, which many scholars read into Qur'an 4:119. Permanence is the operative word, which is why henna and other temporary marking have never been in dispute and are used at weddings and festivals throughout the Muslim world.

Then there is the question people actually ask, which is about washing. Some are told that ink blocks the water in wudu and invalidates prayer. Many scholars who hold tattooing forbidden still hold that the prayer of a tattooed person is valid, because the pigment lies beneath the surface of the skin and the water reaches the skin itself, and that someone who already has a tattoo is not obliged to have it removed, particularly where removal would mean scarring or expense. A number of Shia jurists have ruled that tattooing is permitted for the same reason. Opinion is not uniform, and a scholar you trust is the person to ask.

What people usually want to know

• Whether an existing tattoo invalidates wudu or salah. Many scholars say it does not, because the ink sits under the skin and water still reaches the surface.
• Whether removal is required. Many hold that it is not, especially where laser treatment would risk scarring or cost more than a person can bear.
• Whether medical and reconstructive tattooing is treated differently. It is often handled as a separate question from decoration.
• Whether henna counts. It does not, because it fades.

Hindu and Buddhist practice, and what to ask before you book

Hindu scripture contains no prohibition on tattooing, and traditional tattooing exists in several communities under the name godna. The Ramnami Samaj in central India tattoo the name Ram across the face and body, a practice that began as an answer to caste exclusion from temples. Mehndi at weddings is everywhere. The concern raised most often is respect rather than permission: many people will not put a deity image below the waist, or anywhere they consider unclean, and will think hard about where a sacred name sits.

Buddhism has no general prohibition either, and Southeast Asia has a living tradition of protective tattooing. Sak Yant, applied in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in Khmer script and geometric yantra designs, traditionally comes with precepts the wearer agrees to keep and is applied by a monk or a lay master. Two things are worth knowing before a holiday booking. Buddha images on the body are treated as disrespectful in several countries, and travellers have had trouble at borders over a visible one. And whether a tourist should be getting Sak Yant at all is a live argument in the places that practise it.

Before you book anything with a faith in it

• Ask your own priest, rabbi, imam or teacher. A general page cannot answer for your tradition, your community or your family.
• Have any script checked by someone who reads the language, not by a font. Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit and Pali go wrong at the stencil stage and the mistake is permanent.
• Decide placement with respect in mind. Many people keep sacred text and deity images above the waist.
• Ask the artist whether they have tattooed this imagery before. Some decline religious work and some do it badly.
• Think about visibility. A religious tattoo on a forearm is a conversation you will be having for the rest of your life.