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God Ink
 The
growing trend to tattoo your faith on your sleeve
by Tara Ramroop
Eyes of friends and strangers alike immediately fall to the arm,
the shoulder, the back, or perhaps even to the unnaturally
elongated earlobe - sometimes a question follows, sometimes it
doesn't.
The tattooed and the pierced have signed up
for it all, deeming a stamp of meaning or originality worth the
cost, the pain, the permanence and the perpetual need to cover
their artwork for job interviews. As tattoo shops spring up in
suburbia and as tattoos become standard fare in offices,
researchers and industry professionals are finding many willing
to go under the needle do so in the name of some god. In many
other instances, they do so in the name of their own personal
philosophy of faith.
“Anecdotally, yes, it seems more and more
people are becoming modified: tattooed, scarred, and pierced,”
according to Jaime Wright, who completed a master's thesis in
2006 on the topic of religion and body modification, while
studying at the Graduate Theological Union. He notes the
presence of TV shows such as Miami Ink and One Punk Under
God, a show featuring the Generation X preacher son of Jim
and Tammy Faye Bakker, who donned tattoos and a sub-cultural
style to better connect with a younger generation.
Tattooing has a storied history ranging from
early scarring – cuts rubbed with herbs and ash – that were
found on Ötzi the Iceman, whose body dates back possibly to 3300
BCE, to simple designs popularized by military men who boasted a
love of God, country and buxom blondes on their biceps, Wright
said. There is still a prevalence of religious emblems - the
most obvious being crosses and rosaries still popular among the
tattooed – but tattooing and the permanence thereof often allows
people to redefine themselves and their spirituality on their
own terms.
Clearly, not
everyone who decides on a tattoo does so for religious reasons.
But findings from a research group at Texas Tech University
appear to back up the theory that among college-age students who
go under the needle, religious emblems are common choices for
their artwork. Dr. Jerome Koch, who has a Master’s Degree in
Divinity and teaches sociology at Texas Tech, is delving into
the topic of body
“Though clearly not everyone who decides on
a tattoo does so for religious reasons, findings
from a research group at Texas Tech University
appears to back up the theory
that many do.”
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modification and how
it relates to deviance with a research team comprising himself,
Alden Roberts, Myrna Armstrong and Donna Owen, all TTU
professors. Their initial findings -- research is ongoing --
were presented at the annual meeting of the Religious Research
Association in Nov. 2007, in Tampa, Fla.
Findings from the
group's 2004 and 2005 studies both found that religiousness did
not have much of an impact on people's desire to get a tattoo or
piercing. Later, in the group's ongoing study, "Religiosity,
Fundamentalism, Deviance and Body Art," Koch and his group
measured "religiosity" by asking college-age students from four
different campuses about churchgoing habits, amount of prayer
and Bible reading, among other things. The study sample was
roughly 1,700 students large, equally divided among two
religious schools, Baylor University and the University of Notre
Dame, and two state schools, Texas Tech and Purdue University,
Koch said
The group found that people with tattoos and piercings had
religiosity
scores that were
roughly 10 percent lower than those without body art. These
findings suggest that people with tattoos and piercings were
roughly eight to 10 percent less religious than their peers,
Koch said.
Still, 44 percent of tattoos at Baylor were
religious symbols. At Texas Tech, a non-religious school, only
28 percent were religious in nature, Koch said. These findings
suggest that religion itself doesn't necessarily play into the
decision-making process of getting a tattoo. But religious
students -- at Baylor and Notre Dame -- found tattooing a good
way to express their religiosity
"These tattoos are symbols that suggest
they're going to be religious their whole life -- that religion
is a permanent part of their identities," Koch said. "Sometimes
they're memorials, sometimes they're reminders of faith."
Religious tattoos
were memorials of deceased family or friends, permanent
reminders of personal faith or signs of commitment, according to
the study. One male student, 19, said it reminds him “that God
is always with me, no matter what.” One female student and
Sunday school teacher, 20, said the cross on her right foot
reinforces her “very strong” Catholic faith.
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 “Basically,
we cobble together our identities, and so do
people with tattoos cobble together various
points of relation and meaning with their
tattoos,” said Wright, who is currently
in a Ph.D program in
Ethics and Social Theory, a cooperative program
between the Graduate Theological Union and UC
Berkeley.
Wright, in his
research, has found that in Generation X and
post-Generation-X forms of religiosity, two
things are emphasized: ancient tradition and
intensity. Whether some practice is legitimized
through Christian groups or body modification
groups, tying practices to something ancient
and, therefore, somehow more authentic, is key.
Often, religion and spirituality can play a
large part in this legitimizing process
“There is also a
contingent who get modified to go against the
grain of mainstream body aesthetics or get a
tattoo simply because they like the work of the
tattoo artist,” Wright acknowledged. “So, I
don’t want to imply that for everyone getting
modified it is quasi-religious, but it seems to
be for many.”
Creating meaning and
identity with a tattoo, however, can pose a
problem for some who believe that tattoos are a
slap in the face of their faith. Many cite a
biblical passage, Leviticus 19:28, that says
"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh
for the dead, nor print any marks upon you."
On Hillel.org, in fact, as well as many other
blogs and websites dedicated to Jewish faith,
many express concern that a tattoo would
effectively ban them from proper burial in a
Jewish cemetery.
Of course, the added
symbolism behind tattoos can be appalling to
Jews. To a younger generation, tattoos are
symbols of individuality or celebrations of
commitment to their faith. To an older
generation, tattoos are, conversely, symbols of
oppression and being persecuted because of their
faith.
There is still a heightened desire to re-define
spirituality or faith with ink. The Rev. Giotto
Harrison, a self-professed theosophist and
tattoo artist at Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley,
Ca., agrees that more people are getting tattoos
these days; but he notes that people have always
been getting tattoos. The difference now is that
many dogmas associated with tattooing are
breaking down, as the desire for people to feel
unique in a homogenized world increases.
”Tattoos allow a chance to be unique or at least
have expression,” Harrison said. “It is still,
at times, a mark of rebellion, but most people
these days are getting tattoos to make a
statement about the person they are, to embrace
that and validate who they are, to themselves,
for themselves.”
The positive nature of the tattoo is perhaps the
biggest change in what tattoos represent,
Harrison said. Tattoos, as Wright said, have
been used as marks of triumph or passage.
Harrison adds some also had overtly “anti”
associations. Now, however, Harrison says more
tattoos than ever are about light, love, beauty
and other positive associations – things many
religions and individual spiritual paths seek to
encourage.
“It is still, at times, a mark of
rebellion, but most people these
days are getting tattoos to make a
statement about the person they are,
to embrace that and validate who
they are, to themselves, for
themselves.”
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Tattoos can be as
generally spiritual as marking a certain event,
awakening or realization for people, so they
continue to acknowledge that epiphany and remain
aware, Harrison said. Remaining aware was key
for San Francisco resident Dana Kilian, who has
two tattoos – the most recent of which was her
more spiritual one. This tattoo, a cherry
blossom on her left forearm, represents rebirth
and hope, she said. It’s on the same side as her
wedding ring, another, more familiar symbol of
an individual, long-term commitment.
"(It)
also reminds me –
daily, whenever I look at it -- to be true to my
sense of style, personality and values,” said
Kilian, who identifies herself as spiritual and
not religious.
Tattoos can also be as
overtly religious as Rock of Ages tattoos – a
topic on which tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy wrote
a book popular among tattoo artists and
enthusiasts, Harrison said. The Rock of Ages is
a popular symbol in Christianity, depicting a
soul lost in the sea of life, or sin, and
clinging to the Rock of Ages, or Cross of
Christ.
In practice, Harrison
finds familial and memorial tattoos are more
common than religious tattoos, which, according
to the Texas Tech study, can also be religious
or spiritual in nature. “Spiritual” tattoos, he
says, far outweigh overtly “religious” tattoos
such as crosses, noting he personally only does
a small percentage of these religious emblems.
That said, the meaning
of tattoos can be difficult to surmise without
getting too personal, Harrison said. His job, he
says, is simply to achieve the message and
artistic relevance the client is looking for,
which doesn’t always involve inquiring into the
tattoo’s meaning.
Discussion into the
meaning and symbolism behind Valencia resident
Jeanette Conery’s tattoo, however, was
necessary. In fact, the design process itself
took six months. Conery’s second and most recent
tattoo is a colorful, Buddhist-inspired creation
featuring Kanji for Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo, a
Buddhist chant. The chant means devotion to the
mystic law of the Lotus Sutra. Though there are
many different meanings and interpretations of
the law, most important to Conery is the
implicit eternity of all life through its latent
and active stages.
Conery found the
concept of a tattoo appealing, partially for
artistic value, but also for the uniqueness and
still-rebellious nature of them, she said.
The chant itself is something she does
regularly, in addition to incorporating the
message of the chant into her life.
“I try to have an attitude about life that
reflects the values that this phrase embodies,”
Conery said. “In other words, death is not to be
feared because it’s just another beautiful part
of life, and not being too attached to material
possessions.”
As for her position on the
religious/spirituality continuum, Conery says
she is, “not very religious. Somewhat spiritual.
I definitely have beliefs that nobody can
change.” |
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