Tattooed Christian?

A young adult posed an interesting question to me recently.  It boiled down to this: does having a tattoo (even if it’s a “Christian” symbol) disqualify a person from serving in a church leadership position?  Talk about walking through a minefield!  Maybe my answer should have been “a cross tattoo is okay, but anything else is from the devil!”  The truth is that this simple question is actually loaded with many other questions.

Should a Christian get a tattoo?  Obviously, there are cases where getting a tattoo is wrong.  If you disobey a parent in getting a tattoo, it is wrong.  Tattoos depicting sinful or anti-Christian behavior/attitudes would be wrong.  A tattoo that dishonors your spouse (or future spouse) is wrong.  Having a tattoo that causes another (perhaps less mature) Christian to stumble in their spiritual walk is also wrong.

But what about tattoos in general?  Well, we could go round and round about following Old Testament law.  God is pretty clear in Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.”  A legalist would say that this clearly means Christians shouldn’t get tattoos.  A libertine would say that Christ fulfilled the Law and so we are free to get whatever tattoos we want.

A radical Christian takes the whole truth of the Bible and applies it to their life.  The Leviticus passage, in context, was aimed at God’s chosen people being separated from surrounding cultures.  So the real question becomes: in all honesty, is my motivation in getting a tattoo based on my desire to honor God?  In other words, am I doing this to elevate myself (get others to notice me, fit in with my friends, or for the “cool factor”)?  Or am I doing it as an act of faith?  When you look at it from this standpoint, you realize it is not always a clear black-or-white issue, but one of individual faith.

So, would having a tattoo disqualify someone from a church leadership position?  I don’t think it necessarily should.  A tattoo obviously doesn’t affect someone’s salvation.  Other than the instances I mentioned above that are clearly wrong, the tattoo would be one of individual conscience.  However, if someone was interviewing for a leadership position, it would be legitimate to question them on their reason for getting a tattoo (along with a long list of more important questions).  But I hardly think a tattoo on its own disqualifies someone from a leadership post.