Tattoos
Leviticus 19:28 states explicitly, "You shall not cut into your flesh for
the dead, nor cut any marks on yourselves; I am the Lord." Ancient
peoples of the Near East often cut into their skin and mutilated their
bodies to demonstrate grief. They also cut into their skin and filled
the incisions with indelible dyes, creating tattoos of the deities they
worshipped. These practices were forbidden to Jews not only because
they represented pagan worship, but also because they ran counter to
the biblical prohibitions against spilling blood and mistreating man's G-d given body. Today, most
Jews still hold that tattoos are prohibited, as they are an abuse of
a body that is "on loan" from G-d, and not one's to alter
permanently.
Sources: Kolatch, Alfred J. The
Second Jewish Book of Why. Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.;
Middle Village, New York, 1985. |