Tattoos have existed for thousands of years, with evidence of people getting them as far back as five thousand years ago. Today, they are widely seen, from Maori tribes in New Zealand to corporate offices in Ohio. However, in the ancient Middle East, the authors of the Hebrew Bible prohibited tattooing. As stated in Leviticus 19:28, “You shall not make cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves.”
Historically, many scholars have interpreted this as a caution against pagan mourning rituals. However, language expert John Huehnergard and ancient Israel specialist Harold Liebowitz suggest that tattooing held a different meaning in ancient times.
Huehnergard and Liebowitz point out that the prohibition against incisions or tattoos appears immediately after text that clearly pertains to mourning, which might seem to support the traditional interpretation. However, upon examining death rituals in ancient Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, and Egypt, they found no evidence of skin marking as a mourning practice. They also highlight that in Leviticus and Exodus, there are instances where a single verse addresses two separate topics, suggesting this could also be the case here.
In ancient Mesopotamia, tattoos were frequently used to mark enslaved individuals, while in Egypt, they served as decorative art for women across all social classes. Egyptian captives were branded with the name of a god, signifying their ownership by priests or the pharaoh. Additionally, worshippers might be branded with the name of the deity they revered.
Huehnergard and Liebowitz propose that, considering the central importance of the escape from Egyptian slavery in ancient Jewish law, the Torah likely prohibited tattooing because it symbolized servitude. Interestingly, they note another reference to tattooing in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah 44:5 depicts the descendants of Jacob dedicating themselves to God: “One shall say, ‘I am the LORD’s’… Another shall mark his arm ‘of the LORD.’” In this context, a tattoo seems permissible as a sign of submission, not to a human master, but to God.
Ancient rabbinic discussions generated various interpretations of the tattoo prohibition. Some scholars believed tattoos were prohibited only if they conveyed specific messages, such as the name of God, the phrase “I am the Lord,” or the name of a pagan god. Talmudic law, established around 200 CE, states that tattoos are forbidden only if they are done “for the purpose of idolatry,” but not if they serve to identify someone as enslaved.
The interpretation of the tattooing ban may have evolved over time, but in ancient times, it may have had nothing to do with mourning practices.
Leviticus 19:28–29 (NKJV)
28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD. 29 ‘Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.
That’s a good question. It does offer us some help to understand the why behind its restriction associated with pagan practices. But I don’t fully agree with the “cultural” reasoning behind the article when the Bible claims to be sufficient of itself to give an answer for its own reasoning. The very next verse gives us the “local” cultural reasoning for the prostitution involved with the Caananite and Egyptian religions, but God knows every culture far and wide, and the context is sufficient to provide its own reasoning. So “mourning” for the dead is saying what it means and means what it says as applied to every culture outside of what God is calling holy by choosing the Hebrew culture to represent His holiness. Also, it is distorting what God calls naturally beautiful when we bring all of God’s mind from the totality of Scripture to bear on the question as well, which I do not really have time to answer.
But here are some verses to direct your thoughts on the question.
1 Corinthians 11:1–4 (NKJV)
1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
1 Corinthians 11:7–10 (NKJV)
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.
1 Corinthians 11:13–16 (NKJV)
13 Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.
But if a husband of a wife thinks it’s beautiful to make his wife be associated with prostitution, well, that’s on him. But God calls the husband to lead his wife to be associated with holiness, otherness according to the world to come.
1 Peter 1:13–16 (NKJV): 13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 3:1–6 (NKJV)
1 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.
The Hebrew culture did have slaves, but they were indentured slaves rather than kidnapped for servitude. So there were strict rules the owners had to follow. But if a slave loved his master, the master would pierce his ear to signify his love for the master.
This “evolved” into the feminine appearance of earrings and wedding rings bearing the similar purpose of the “symbol” of authority but in association with a willing love of service and loyalty.
Exodus 21:1–6 (NKJV)
1 “Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them: 2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. 3 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. 5 But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
Somewhere in the old testament, it says not to pierce or mar your body. This might have been it. I like the cartoon w/ a smoke stack on a guy’s head> for smoking & I have said if God wanted pictures on you He would have put them. Things were to enjoy, not paint on ourselves.