What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos? Leviticus, Interpretation and Christian Views

The One Explicit Biblical Prohibition and the Textual Considerations That Affect How It Is Read

The single biblical verse that explicitly addresses tattooing is Leviticus 19:28. The most commonly cited English translation reads: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD." The New Revised Standard Version renders it: "You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks upon you."

Several features of this passage are worth understanding before drawing conclusions from it. First, the structure of the verse places the tattooing prohibition in direct parallel with a prohibition against cutting the body for the dead. Both prohibitions appear to be addressing rituals of mourning associated with the religious practices of the neighbouring cultures in the ancient Near East, where self-mutilation and skin marking as expressions of grief for the deceased were documented practices. The prohibitions are not presented as general rules about body modification but as specific rules distinguishing Israelite practice from surrounding pagan rituals.

Second, the Hebrew word translated as "tattoo" (ketovet ka-aka or variant spellings) is a hapax legomenon: a word that appears only once in the entire Hebrew Bible. Because it appears nowhere else, there is no other passage that can be compared to help clarify its precise meaning. Biblical scholars have debated whether it refers specifically to tattooing, to a mark produced by incision, or to a form of branding. The uncertainty about what the original word precisely denoted is a genuine scholarly consideration, not a convenient caveat.

Third, the preceding verse, Leviticus 19:27, prohibits rounding the hair at the sides of the head or clipping the edges of the beard. Most Christians do not interpret this as a prohibition on haircuts or shaving. The interpretive principles applied to verse 28 are therefore relevant to how verse 27 is also handled.

The Theological Reasoning by Which Most Mainstream Protestant and Catholic Theologians Conclude Leviticus 19:28 Does Not Directly Prohibit Christians From Tattoos

The most widely held mainstream Protestant and Catholic theological position is that Christians are not under the Mosaic law as a binding covenant, and therefore the prohibition in Leviticus 19:28 does not directly govern Christian behaviour in the same way it governed Israelites under the old covenant. Several New Testament passages support this position.

Romans 6:14 states that believers are "not under the law, but under grace." Romans 7:6 describes Christians as having been "released from the law." Galatians 3:24-25 describes the law as a guardian that pointed toward Christ and notes that "we are no longer under a guardian." These passages are central to the Protestant understanding that Christians live under the new covenant and are not obligated to observe the Mosaic ceremonial and civil laws.

On this view, the question is not whether Leviticus 19:28 prohibits Christians from getting tattoos, because it is addressed to Israelites under the old covenant. The question becomes whether the underlying principle that the prohibition embodies still carries moral weight for Christians. Many theologians argue that the historical context of the prohibition, targeting specific pagan mourning practices that were spiritually significant in the ancient Near East, makes it a culturally specific command rather than a universally applicable moral principle. On this view, a tattoo chosen for personal or aesthetic reasons today does not carry the religious significance that the Leviticus prohibition was targeting.

The Theological Reasoning by Which Some Conservative Christians Maintain That Tattoos Remain Inadvisable for Believers

Some theologically conservative Christian traditions maintain that while the Mosaic law as a whole is not binding on Christians, the underlying principle expressed in the Leviticus prohibition still provides moral guidance for Christian behaviour. This position does not necessarily frame tattoos as sinful in an absolute sense, but argues that the prohibition reflects wisdom about how Christians should relate to their bodies.

One argument draws on the New Testament passage 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, which states: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies." On this reading, the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit carries implications for how it should be treated, and permanently marking it with tattoos may be inconsistent with treating it as something set apart for God's purposes.

A second argument focuses on the distinction between what is permissible and what is beneficial. Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 6:12, "I have the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial," is cited to suggest that even if tattoos are not explicitly sinful, Christians should thoughtfully consider whether they are spiritually beneficial or whether they reflect motivations that are inconsistent with Christian character.

A third position, associated with scholars including Gordon Wenham, argues that the prohibition reflects a principle about the body as made in the image of God and therefore not to be disfigured. On this view, the specific cultural context of the Leviticus prohibition does not exhaust its significance, and the principle of bodily integrity it expresses still applies to Christians even if the specific ritual context no longer does.

The Significance of the New Testament's Silence on Tattooing and What This Means for Biblical Interpretation

The New Testament does not address tattooing directly. No passage in the Gospels, the Letters of Paul, or any other New Testament text prohibits or endorses tattoos. This silence has been interpreted in different ways depending on the theological framework applied.

For those who argue that what the New Testament does not explicitly forbid is within the scope of Christian freedom, the absence of any New Testament prohibition on tattooing is significant. On this view, the silence of the apostolic letters on a practice that was present in the Greco-Roman world of the first century indicates that tattooing was not considered a moral issue requiring explicit guidance for Christian communities.

For those who argue that the Old Testament's moral principles continue to provide guidance unless specifically revoked in the New Testament, the absence of a New Testament endorsement does not resolve the question either way. The silence neither repeals the Old Testament principle nor explicitly extends it to the new covenant context.

A small number of interpreters have noted Revelation 19:16, which describes a name written on Christ's thigh: "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Some have cited this as suggesting that even in the biblical narrative, significant marks on the body are not inherently problematic. Most mainstream scholars treat this passage as metaphorical or symbolic rather than as evidence about the permissibility of tattooing.

How Christians Have Actually Engaged With Tattooing Throughout History and What Judaism Teaches on the Subject

The idea that tattooing has always been uniformly rejected by Christians is historically inaccurate. The historical record shows a more complex picture that includes significant traditions of Christian tattooing.

Coptic Christians in Egypt have tattooed the cross on their wrists as a mark of their faith for at least twelve centuries, with evidence of the practice extending as far back as the eighth century. This tradition continues today. Christian pilgrims who travelled to the Holy Land during the medieval period frequently commemorated their journeys with tattoos of crosses on their wrists or hands, a tradition maintained in Jerusalem by the Razzouk family, who have tattooed Christian pilgrims for over five hundred years. Some early Christian communities used tattooing as a mark of baptism or membership. The Montanist sect referenced in early Christian writing took a passage from Revelation literally and tattooed marks signifying their membership on their foreheads.

The historical picture is therefore one of diversity within Christianity on this question rather than uniform prohibition, even before modern interpretive frameworks were applied. Some early church fathers opposed tattoos; others were indifferent; and some Christian communities used tattooing as a positive expression of faith.

Within Judaism, the interpretation of Leviticus 19:28 is more straightforwardly observed in Orthodox communities, which maintain the prohibition as part of halakha (Jewish religious law). Conservative and Reform Judaism take a range of positions, with some maintaining the prohibition and others treating it as a matter of personal conscience. The widely circulated belief that Jewish cemeteries will not bury people with tattoos is largely a myth that does not reflect the actual practices of most Jewish burial societies, but the underlying concern about the prohibition is real within traditional Jewish observance.

What the Bible Says About Tattoos: The Honest Multi-Perspective Summary

The Bible contains one passage explicitly addressing tattooing: Leviticus 19:28, which prohibits Israelites from cutting their bodies for the dead or tattooing themselves, in the context of distinguishing Israelite practice from the pagan mourning rituals of surrounding cultures.

Whether this applies to Christians is a genuinely contested theological question. The mainstream Protestant and Catholic position is that Christians are not bound by Mosaic law as a whole and that this prohibition does not directly govern Christian behaviour, though the motivations behind getting a tattoo remain a subject of Christian reflection. Some theologically conservative traditions argue that the underlying principle still carries moral weight and counsel against tattoos on the basis of passages about the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Most theologians in these traditions nonetheless frame this as a matter of Christian conscience rather than an absolute prohibition.

The New Testament does not address tattooing directly. Historical Christian practice has been varied, with significant traditions of devotional tattooing in Coptic Christianity and medieval pilgrimage culture. Orthodox Judaism maintains the Leviticus prohibition as binding halakha.

For anyone whose faith community has a position on this question, engaging honestly with that community's teaching and the theological reasoning behind it is the appropriate approach. This page has aimed to present the major positions fairly and does not take a theological position on which of them is correct.