I’m writing about something a little more fleshy than usual today. Tattoos. You see, I walked by a tattoo parlour the other day, with a friend of mine, and remembered that I’d always wanted a tattoo as a kid. To tell the truth, I still want one, I’m just wise enough to know I’d better be real sure of myself before I get it done. So I said, ‘I wouldn’t mind a tattoo, if only I knew what to get.’. And he said, ‘But aren’t tattoos forbidden by levitical law?’

I was a little taken aback. Yeah, they are, in Leviticus 19:28. But as far as I knew, most Christians understood that we are no longer held by the Law. This understanding stems from verses like like Romans 6:14 (For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.) and Galatians 5:18  (But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.) But mainly from a large chunk of Romans 7.

Now, whilst I don’t think we are under the law, I don’t plan to discuss that. I’m just wondering about the application of Levitical law in modern Christian lives. Lets have a look at some of the laws in Leviticus 19, that immediately surround the anti-tattoo and cutting law:

• You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. (19)
• When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD. But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you. (23-25)
• You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. (26)
• You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes. (26)
• You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. (27)
• You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man. (32)

If you read the whole of Leviticus 19, there are a lot more. Verses 20-22, for example, deal with the situations where rape is not a killing offence.But I’d like to put those verses I quoted into modern language:

• You may not eat anything you grow for the first five years after you’ve planted it.
• You can’t eat any meat that has blood in it.
• You can’t look at your morning zodiac in the morning paper.
• You can’t cut your sideburns or shave your beard.
• You have to stand up whenever you see an old man.

Raise your hand those who believe shaving your beard is a sin. Because, if we are not free from the law, it is. These are in there along with laws like ‘keep the Sabbath’ (30), ‘do not lie’ and ‘do not steal’ (11) and ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’ (18). There is no distinction between them. No distinction.

So, if we are free from the law, none of these laws hold, and we must go by how the Spirit leads us. And if we are not free from the law, all of these laws hold, which means no burgers, no shaving, no eating anything from a tree younger than five years old, and no cross-breeding of plants or animals, or wearing anything from a cross-bred plant or animal.

But regardless of your stance on the law, you’re either free from all of these laws, and bid to listen only to the Spirit, or you’re bound by all of these laws.

Now, there is one issue that I’m not addressing here. The fact that we are made in the image of God. It can be argued that, as objects that reflect and contain aspects of the divine, any modifications, additions, corruptions etc. are blasphemous. Tattoos are considered a part of this. Now, I don’t really hold that tattoos are blasphemous in this way, but I don’t believe my position is any more (or less) valid than theirs. But, if one were to decide against getting a tattoo (or, for that matter, a piercing, plastic surgery, or a vasectomy), I think this might be a valid reason. But, I don’t think levitical law is, for the consistency reasons stated above.

So, I believe that I can get a tattoo if I choose. If I decide to, however, I’d better have thought about it pretty carefully.

P.S. Now, it should be mentioned that Robin Parry has made a convincing argument here that we’re still under the law of  Leviticus 19:26, “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it.”, based on Acts 15:13-21. I’m ignoring that until I have more time to study it, but it certainly seems like an apostolic decree for all Christians to eat oly meat that has been drained of blood. But that is a unique exception to the general ‘Those in the Spirit are free from the Law’ rule.