Tattoos & the Transmission of Faith

Full disclosure: I have 10 tattoos… and I am very much Catholic. Perhaps that’s a shocking way to introduce a piece that attempts to bridge a perceived gap between two seemingly disconnected subjects, but I wish to point out, up front, that the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) delineates no position on the morality or immorality of the faithful receiving tattoos. However, this lack of a position does not entirely halt debate amongst advocates and opponents of the ancient body-art practice. Still, many continue to appraise the situation, and quite understandably so, seek out guidance from the Sacred Scriptures where Sacred Tradition (our two foundations of faith and sources of Divine Revelation in our rich Catholic tradition) seems to remain silent on the subject.

In the appeals to Sacred Scripture, I have heard the most popular argument from opponents of tattooing. The opposed will generally ground their convictions based on a rather obscure Old Testament verse from what we might call “the old law.” Found in Leviticus, this exhortation reads: “Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the Lord” (19:28). While that 4-word conclusion certainly seems to have “the force of Divine law,” we must consider not only the place of this verse within the whole of Sacred Scripture, but also its context, in general. Leviticus, itself, is primarily a “rule book” at the heart of the Mosaic law, or the “old law” which was replaced by “the new and everlasting covenant” in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That said, as faithful Catholics, we must take some of the prescriptions of the “old law” with ‘a grain of salt’ because they were primarily authored and intended for a strict Jewish audience who expressed their relationship to God through ritualistic and ceremonial actions. Now, it’s true that we still express our relationship to God and others through similar ritualistic and ceremonial actions today (what we know as “sacraments” and “sacramentals”), but as Christ has “given us a new commandment” (cf. John 13:34) rooted in Love, the genuine focus for the expression of relationship with God (in Jesus Christ) and in others becomes that which concerns and pertains to our “interior disposition,” that is, what is in our hearts. Therefore, in being strictly concerned with adherence and/or precision to the “old law,” we essentially avoid the heart of the New Testament.

In view, then, of what we learn from Jesus in the Sacred Scriptures, namely, that the character and content of our hearts (or the motives behind our actions) are of greatest importance in the moral appraisal, we can begin to develop tradition around the sensus fideli, or “sense of the faithful.” This term, first popularized in liturgical and ecclesiological studies during Vatican II, refers to the collective understanding of how the majority of faithful persons intuit or understand theological, spiritual, or moral teachings. Were we to survey a large group of faithful Catholics in an open-ended question and ask, “Do you think tattoos are sinful?,” my guess would be that a majority would reply, “It probably depends.” Fair enough. Then, on what? To determine this, we can use the simplest tool of moral evaluation and assess the morality of tattooing by considering the motives, means, and ends behind why one might receive a tattoo.

In line with the “sense of the faithful,” most of us would likely agree that any reason for performing an action (its motive) should be one that advances goodness, truth, and beauty or in stopping another action that threatens the proliferation of what is good, true, and beautiful. Consider then, the faithful Catholic woman, who in choosing to get a tattoo does so to remind her of the memory of a deceased loved one. The memorial of “those gone before us marked with the sign of faith” is an action of true goodness, truth, and beauty and, as such, is roundly regarded as positive within our Catholic tradition. Conversely, were this same woman, in a moment of impulsive rebellion against her parents, to choose to get a tattoo – simply for the purpose of causing strife and offense, then it is obvious that this act impedes the continuation of what is good, true, and beautiful.

Jesus’ “new law” of love, “on which hangs all the Law and the Prophets” (cf. Matthew 22:40) focuses, as previously mentioned, primarily on our “interior disposition,” or the character and true intent of our hearts. Ultimately, this “new law” prizes sincere motive above perfect adherence to rituals and practices (which parallel to means, or the ways in which one goes about bringing about a desired outcome or result). While, Jesus’ insistence and focus on motive is clear in the Gospels, this does not mean that all means and ends are acceptable either, in the ultimate moral appraisal. One may have a kind motive behind helping another person, but if the means by which they go about helping this other person involves their somehow impeding the good, the true, and the beautiful, then we can assume that the means alone are not morally substantive. Likewise, this follows with the ends (or outcome / results) of an action. However, in most situations, should a person have a truly altruistic motive behind their actions guided by a solid faith, we can generally conclude, or at least hope that “out of faith in Christ, good works must inevitably come” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 148).

In the final analysis, Catholic-Christians ought to morally appraise the morality (or immorality) of receiving tattoos based not on the “old law,” but rather on Jesus’ “new law” of love which prizes above all the content of our hearts. Allow me to close by offering this personal example from my own life: Recently, I obtained a matching tattoo with a person very dear to me. After some discussion and prayer, we both agreed to get the Greek word for “spiritual life,” ζω?, (pronounced ‘zo-ay’) tattooed on our persons together to symbolize not only an incredible bond we have formed with one another, but also as a reminder that it can only have been Jesus who even says, “I have come that you may have life and have it in its fullness” (John 10:10), who brought us together and who sustains our own lives with His “fullness of life.” Our tattoos now not only remind us of one another and our bond together, but remind us to pray for one another, to love one another through adversities, and to be to each other one that reflects God’s image and encourages that very “fullness of life” that only Jesus gives us. In that, I would argue that not only is there no sin in having received such a tattoo, but that it also serves as a sort of “sacramental” (like a permanent holy medal) in that it invites us to prayer, reminds us to love, reminds us of Jesus’ Word and promises, and in that way, also serves as a means of positively and outwardly transmitting our vibrant faith to others.