The line between being in the world but not of the world has always been a fine one for Christians to walk. I think that lots of Christians get so scared of becoming part of the world that they go too far the other way and bar it out completely. They assume that anything the world likes must be sinful as a result. While there are lots of cultural elements that have shifted in the Christian perspective, such as theatre and polyphonic music, the one that I want to focus on today is tattoos.
In the 1800s, they were a symbol of criminal activity or a life of adventure. In the 1900s, they meant you were a delinquent. In 2022, they are an expression of individual stories.
Stories are what connect us all; stories make us individual. Everyone loves a good story. Life is made up of and told in a series of stories. Marketing uses stories to sell products. God designed the Bible as one overarching story told through a series of smaller stories. Parents use stories to get their kids to fall asleep, and tattoos have been telling peoples’ stories for longer than most forms of visual art have.
I vividly remember getting my first tattoo.
It was my 18th birthday and the only thing I asked for was a tattoo. My dad, being a byproduct of the 60s, was not super thrilled about the idea of paying for a tattoo until I showed him what I wanted to get.
My idea of what a tattoo could be had changed after seeing one of my role models in high school use henna. She had no tattoos herself out of respect for the people she loved, but did become very good at drawing temporary henna tattoos. She drew intricate designs that whorled and climbed up her arms and legs, but each one told a story. Sometimes it was a Bible story, others it was her testimony. She taught me that tattoos come with incredible power: the opportunity to open up gospel conversations.
From then on, I decided that any tattoo I got would be a gospel conversation starter. This is something that I think many Christians have started to catch on to.
“That’s why I got the word faith in a different language,” senior business management major JV Martinez said. “And my second tattoo is the word “agape” in Greek, so I have Hebrew and Greek, and they have opened up conversations with people. Whether that’s ‘What does that word mean?’ Well, here’s what that word means, and then follow up a conversation with that.”
Tattoos no longer have to be a symbol of a Christian’s past wrongs or mean that they’re falling away from the faith. Instead, they are used as a bridge between those in the world and those of the world, as a way to express a Christian’s ultimate identity: a child of God.
“I think it can definitely, like, humanize people in authoritative positions,” Kevin Morgan, Residence Director of the men’s quads, said.
But it’s not just people in authoritative positions that need humanizing. Christians can carry with us a holier-than-thou air adopted, fairly or unfairly, because of past wrongs done by the church and individuals to society. Humanizing ourselves can sometimes be the first step in breaking down stereotypes.
Tattoos can also be a picture of more than just what the tattoo itself depicts. Many people see the permanence of tattoos as a bad thing, but the Bible tells us to write scripture on our hearts.
“What drew me to [memorializing something in a tattoo] was the fact that you had to endure something for the remembrance. When I think about my tattoos, I don’t just think about the memory, I get to think about the memory and how much it meant to me to get a tattoo of it,” Morgan said. “For me, I think, the physical reminder of sitting still for, you know, two and a half hours or just the pain that it took or the dedication you have to take for cleaning it and maintaining it too, you know? All of that was worth it to me, and I think it makes me appreciate that form of artwork just that much more.”
The average person understands that tattoos are a commitment. That’s why the first question people ask when they see a tattoo is usually, “What does it mean?” They assume that if you chose to permanently brand yourself with this thing, then it must mean something to you. I don’t believe there is any such thing as a tattoo without meaning, even if the meaning is just the aesthetic — but imagine a tattoo that means something that matters more than anything else. Imagine a tattoo that tells the story of how to go from death to life. Now imagine how important the question, “What does your tattoo mean?” becomes.
When I bounded down the stairs on my 18th birthday, full of static electricity, my mom was waiting for me at the computer with a paper in hand. She held up an image and asked, “What do you think of this?”
“It’s nice,” I replied. “What is it?”
She proceeded to tell me that the image represented her faith and her struggle with Bipolar N/D. She had wanted to get something like it tattooed on her wrist for a while, but now she had the excuse.
“Don’t tell your dad,” she said, and then we went to the parlor to get our first tattoos.
I got a line art compass with Matthew 28:18-20 inscribed just below it tattooed on my ankle that day. Matthew 28:18-20 is the set of verses that lays out Christians’ call to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, also known as the Great Commission. I got it on my ankle so that I am always walking toward God’s plan for me. A few months later, I got a tattoo that symbolized the four soils on my wrist.
Since then, a number of people have asked me about my tattoos, and I have had the opportunity to tell the story of the four soils to everyone who has asked me about it. I also get to share the purpose that everyone who knows the Lord has through the Great Commission.
Tattoos are not for everyone. If you don’t vibe with them, then that’s cool. There are other ways to express your identity as a child of God. But as cultural perspectives of tattoos shift, more and more Christians use this form of art to share their faith and show the world that they are in it but not of it.
And for those wondering, my dad loved our tattoos.
