Tattooing and Piercing

The distinction between religious rituals that involve tattooing or piercing of the body and cultural practices that include tattooing and piercing is often difficult to make as tattooing and piercing are common in rites of passage and as a mark of status and rank that may reflect spiritual prowess. Tattoos may also serve as a sign of religious devotion or as a talisman or amulet providing protection.

[Page 1266]Tattooing is an ancient practice. Tattoos were found on the natural mummy of a man called Ötzi the Iceman, dating from 3300 BCE, which was found in a glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991. Tattooing was apparently practiced in Japan as early as 3000 BCE, as suggested by clay figurines put into tombs as attendants for the dead, which were painted or engraved in a way that resembles tattooing. However, the first written record of Japanese tattooing is from a Chinese dynastic history compiled in 297 CE. Russian archaeologists have found mummies with tattoos representing real and fantastic animals in the Altai Mountains of western and southern Siberia that date back 2,400 years. Julius Caesar reported that the natives of Britain were tattooed when he invaded in 54 BCE. Incan mummies with tattoos dating from the 11th century have been found in Peru, and the reports of Cortez and his soldiers show that tattooing was practiced in central Mexico when the Europeans arrived there. Tattooing was also common among the native peoples of North America, particularly the Iroquois and the Chickasaw. Inuit women were tattooed to mark their marital status and clan identity. In the societies of Polynesian peoples in the South Pacific, from where the word tattoo (Polynesian tatau) was borrowed, tattooing was part of a rite of passage for young chiefs conducted at the onset of puberty, and the spiritual power and status of a chief were conveyed by his tattoos. Scarification, which is related to tattooing as it is produced by cutting the skin and inserting special sand or ashes to make raised scars, is practiced in Africa.

Tattoos on the mummified remains of Amunet, a priestess of the Goddess Hathor at Thebes (ca. 2160–1994 BCE) suggest that in ancient Egypt tattoos were a sign of the tie between a particular person and a spirit or god. Consequently, in Leviticus 19:28, the people of Israel were forbidden to mark or mutilate their bodies as did the people of Canaan, Babylonia, and Egypt: “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” This prohibition was later reinforced by the idea that as humankind was created in the image of God, tattooing was a desecration of God's image.

In Babylonia and Egypt, tattoos were also used to identify a slave with his owner's mark. Similarly, in the Greek and Roman world, criminals and slaves were tattooed. While tattoos and body piercing are not mentioned in the New Testament, in the Christian cultures of Europe also, tattooing was associated with criminal and marginal status. Most notoriously, the Nazis marked Jews at Auschwitz and other camps with tattoos.

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