I got a tattoo today. I wanted to show my wife how much I love her, so I went to a tattoo artist and had her name tattooed onto my arm. Not really. I do love my wife and I do need to do a better job showing her that, but I did not get a tattoo. But what if I did? Would you think less of me? Tattoos aren’t all that big a deal in our culture, but for a pastor to get a tattoo…? What would Jesus think about a tattoo? The bigger issue at question is that of body art and adornment. This includes the extremes of cosmetic surgery, implants, and body modification (have you ever seen the guy that’s turning his face into a cat?). And it includes more common things like piercings, make-up, tanning, and tattoos. Lest you think this issue is unimportant… It reflects our thinking about ourselves, our purpose, and our value. And the Scripture does have something to say about body art. Just to remind you… In this series of blogs, “Christ and Culture,” I’ve been writing about what, from my perspective, Jesus thinks about our culture. Jesus isn’t against our culture, nor is He for our culture. He transcends our culture and wants to transform our culture. Jesus would even speak into our culture and body art. But I don’t think he would say what many Christians think He would say. Christians have often quoted Leviticus 19:28 as a prohibition against body art: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.” But there are a couple problems with using this verse as a proof-text against body art. First, that’s not what it’s talking about. If you read the entire context, you’ll find that this passage is about God banning practices that would associate Israel with their pagan, idol-worshipping neighbors. The point of many laws in the Old Testament was to distinguish God’s people from their culture. In Leviticus 19:28, it’s not primarily about the practice itself, but what it signified. In that culture, tattoos and piercings were part of a religious ritual, possibly funeral rituals. Markings were designed to protect a person from evil spirits. So they were banned because of idolatrous meanings, in order to make Israel different, devoted to God alone. But what do tattoos and piercings signify now? Sometimes very little. Sometimes it depends on the tattoo or the piercing. So some tattoos might be wrong. But maybe not all tattoos or all body art. But we can’t use Leviticus 19:28 as a ban on body art. What we can learn from Leviticus, however, is to be different. Second, we are not called to follow Old Testament law. We follow Jesus. The example of Old Testament law teaches us to be different, pure, and devoted to God (Deut. 18:9, 13). So maybe I will get that tattoo after all.