Tattoos: Immoral or moral? Who cares they look crap
I’m glad I’m not the only person to notice that Britain has become a ‘tattooed nation’
For once, I’m with Parsons. In Britain, when the sun comes out, so do the tattoos. Acres and acres of flesh vandalised by grubby-looking ink daubings: martial-arts symbols, nude dancers, flowers and roses, Guns’n’Roses, dolphins, dogs and loved ones’ names scrawled in Sanskrit. Tattoos used to be a subcultural expression of criminals, sailors and hard men. Now everyone, from footballers to the prime minister’s wife, has their body adorned in artwork last seen on a Prog-Rock album sleeve. To describe them as lurid would be an understatement, which is a word probably hated and feared in tattoo parlours everywhere.
Whilst the Catholic Herald argues tattoos are not immoral per se from a Catholic perspective, which is a position I agree with; let’s be honest, most of them look absolutely bloody awful.
Come on, when was the last time you saw a tattoo and thought: yeah nice, that really looks good and is an certain improvement on the canvas of blank flesh.
The Catholic Herald piece confuses me somewhat as although it indicates tattoos are not a moral issue in the title, the author posits:
If asked (not that I have been yet) for advice by someone who was contemplating getting a tattoo, I would urge them not to go ahead. We are in the image and likeness of God: while we can adorn our bodies, we should not deface them. Tattooing strikes me not as adornment but as defacing the body.
The problem with this is firstly: if we are not to deface our bodies as we are “in the image and likeness of God” then surely to do so would be immoral?
The second problem is the difference between adornment and defacing is a matter of subjective perception.
Thirdly, where does this leave those scarred through self-harm? I might well address this particular issue further; any thoughts welcome in this regard.
The other day Levitcus 18:22 was trending on Twitter due to a guy called Marcel Gelmi, who has a penchant for “beating down” gay folk, and sports a tattoo comprising the text from Leviticus prohibiting homosexuality:
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
Trouble is he seems to have forgotten about Leviticus 19:28:
You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.
Tosser.
Tags: Religion Society
June 27th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1495529805001/christian-tattoo-shop-spreads-faith-through-ink/?playlist_id=86860
June 27th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Tattoo nation no dispute that there is tattoo hysteria in the U.K. a fascinating social expression that maybe clues the deeper U.K. mindset.
June 30th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Now just hang on a minute! Not even those lick on tattoos that I find in my bubble gum packets???
July 2nd, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Good word. This issue has been battered around our house lately as I have two teenage kids and my nephew just got his first tattoo. I keep telling my kids, “What’s that going to look like when he’s my age?”