Leviticus 19: 28 "Don't cut gashes in your flesh when someone dies or tattoo yourselves; I am ADONAI."

Although realistically, the tattoo prohibition was in connection with the worship of the dead and not necessarily against regular tattoos, the fact remains that tattoos are a kind of graven image or desecration of the body which is the Temple of YHWH. The body is not ours to deface; it is the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). There is nothing in the Bible tells us to decorate our bodies with permanent paint placed under the skin!

Exodus 20: 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.

The origin of the tattoo is associated with paganism, demonism, Baal worship, shamanism, mysticism, heathenism, cannibalism and many other pagan beliefs. Tattoing has never been connected with believers in YHWH (Yahweh) or Messiah Yeshua. The biggest thing we see men of old doing to their bodies was to place rings in the noses and ears of women (Genesis 24, Ezekiel 16) and of their servants (Exodus 21:16). There is not one instance in the Bible where people drew or carved imagines into their skin!

The theme of most tattooes is death and darkness – skulls, snakes, demons, weird and rebellious things. Even those who have crosses tattoed on themselves don't realize the cross is a pagan symbol - an instrument of torture and death used by the pagan Greeks and Romans of old. And let's not forget about the fact that tattooing is risky because you can acquire any number of deadly diseases, including Hepatitis C and AIDS.

Some will say, "But that's all OLD Testament stuff; it doesn't pertain to us today!" Really? Have you read the entire Bible in context? If so, then you surely remember that YHWH (Yahweh) instructed that ALL who believe in Him are to do exactly as His Chosen!

Numbers 15: 13 "'Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 14 For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do. 15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.'"

YHWH did not make separate rules for His natural and adopted children! As a believer, YOU are a part of Israel...and YHWH told Israel: "I give you good instruction: Do not forsake my Torah" (Proverbs 4:2). And Paul reiterated this when he said: Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31) Paul also wrote - a full 29 years after the death of Yeshua:

Acts 21: 25. As to those of the Gentiles who have believed, we have written, that they should keep themselves from (an idol’s) sacrifice, and from sexual sin, and from what is strangled, and from blood.” 26. Then Paul took those men, on the following day, and was purified with them; and he entered and went into the temple, explaining to them how to complete the days of the purification, up to the presentation of the offering by each of them.

If you are still unconvinced that any of the above applies to you, then consider this: Tattooing, in addition to being disobedient, is idolatrous because it displays a permanent image on your body. Even if you "tattoo for Jesus" you are marking yourself with an image - an image of what you or the tattoo artist THINK He might look like! Since we do not know what Yeshua looks like, we cannot realistically carve an image of Him into our bodies! YHWH (Yahweh) told us very clearly and explicitly that we are to have no other gods before Him, as He alone who is supreme Ex. 20:3; Is. 45:5).

The Bible expressly commands believers to:

(1) Remain unspotted from the world:

James 1: 27 The religious observance that God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world.

(2) Abstain from the appearance of evil:

1 Thess. 5: 22 ...but keep away from every form of evil.

(3) Friendship with the world is enmity with God....

James 4: 4 ....Don't you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy!

(4) Come out from among them and be separate from the world:

2 Cor. 6: 17 Therefore ADONAI says, "'Go out from their midst; separate yourselves; don't even touch what is unclean. Then I myself will receive you.

We therefore have the responsibility to obey YHWH's commands and abstain from worldly associations, pastimes, or habits - not just out of duty but because we love God and have a living relationship with Him.

John 14: 15 "If you love me, you will keep my commands...."