Faith-based tattoo: as a result of one, did you ever talk with someone? (Poll included)

[Rita]

Have you he got any idea how some of the comments on this thread make others feel- I have never regretted my tattoo, I am not unwise, ashamed, unchristian , stupid, I didn’t get the tattoo done to draw attention to myself, I love the tattoo and for me personally it has real meaning and significance - yet even those who know me and are my closest friends on this forum have generalised and branded Christians with tattoos in very negative ways.
It’s very wrong to tar everyone with the same brush just because it’s not something you agree with
Rita

 

[farouk]

I guess I'm old-fashioned. I'm becoming my father. Lol I'm having trouble typing. So after I get it fixed, we'll talk. Ron

@Ron Coates A quote not long ago was by a nurse who said that 10 out of the 13 in her nursing team are tattooed. Some ppl who post here are care assistants.

It really is extremely widespread now, anyway. A proportion of the ink would be faith based.

 

[Nancy]

Have you he got any idea how some of the comments on this thread make others feel- I have never regretted my tattoo, I am not unwise, ashamed, unchristian , stupid, I didn’t get the tattoo done to draw attention to myself, I love the tattoo and for me personally it has real meaning and significance - yet even those who know me and are my closest friends on this forum have generalised and branded Christians with tattoos in very negative ways.
It’s very wrong to tar everyone with the same brush just because it’s not something you agree with
Rita

I'm sorry Rita, I certainly did not mean to offend you. I too have a tattoo. I'm not judging anybody who has one. It just seems that some take it too far. Forgive me, I'm sorry. I think I should just shut up on some things, lol. Love you sister.

 

[farouk]

Have you he got any idea how some of the comments on this thread make others feel- I have never regretted my tattoo, I am not unwise, ashamed, unchristian , stupid, I didn’t get the tattoo done to draw attention to myself, I love the tattoo and for me personally it has real meaning and significance - yet even those who know me and are my closest friends on this forum have generalised and branded Christians with tattoos in very negative ways.
It’s very wrong to tar everyone with the same brush just because it’s not something you agree with
Rita

@Rita A wholesome post from a Christian lady who makes lots of sensible comments on many subjects and who is unashamed and does not regret — indeed, you love — being tattooed.

It would be good I guess in some ways if more Christians had careers as tattoo artists.

 

[Rita]

My post was general Nancy on one level. I do get fed up with the blanket judgements people make here, someone doesn’t agree with something themselves, so they decide that everyone that has differing views is condemned. I must admit it did hurt earlier in this thread when anyone with a tattoo was defined as not possibly being a Christian, lacking in wisdom ect.
I do agree that their are some People who take it too far and some who are totally obsessed , and I equally agree with random tattoos that are done without any concerns or thought about the future. To be honest some of the posts didn’t come across as meaning ‘ certain groups ‘, so I felt the comments were linked to anyone with a tattoo.
Nancy I have no problem with you or anyone else being open and honest but I couldn’t sit at the other end of a computer screen any longer and not relay that some of the comments are blanket judgements , and therefore hurtful. It wasn’t about taking offence - it was actually reading comments over the last few weeks and feeling completely misjudged. This was the thread that nearly caused me to leave.
Rita

 

[farouk]

I'm becoming my father. Lol I'm having trouble typing.

@Ron Coates Sometimes a keyboard can be quite laborious, indeed.....

Somewhere there were written statistics to the effect that 59%-70% or more of parlor clients in North America are female; this might not have been the case in your father's day, it's true. Now it's participated in very fully; and a proportion is often faith based.

 

[farouk]

I like that, simple...but speaks multitudes, really.

@Naomi25 Yes....I do see what you mean, indeed.

It sort of seems to say, in a really restrained and minimalist way: "I want to be - am glad to be - tattooed" and "This is how I want to be identified".

Like you say, exactly, it's so simple...but it speaks deeply ('multitudes' is a good word there, too).

 

[farouk]

I find some tattoos aesthetically pleasing, others just kook like a freak show.

@michaelvpardo Tattooing is really like a very broad continuum, with extremism at opposite edges and a huge amount of other -including faith based - in between. (If this makes sense?)

 

[farouk]

Yes true, seems everyone is doing it so it's losing it's coolness, just from my perspective

@soul man Well, to those who are just getting into being tattooed I don't think it will likely cease to engage people to have it done for the first time, anyway. But you're right that it seems everyone is doing it; it's what is done now and quite a lot is faith based. Like your wife's nurse, that you were telling us about.

 

[farouk]

@Ron Coates This is the quote I referred to (and I guess also the point is that they can be effective conversation-starters):

On my shift, only three don't have them (of 13 nurses). We have several nurses (including myself) who have visible tattoos; one gal has them on her wrists. My hospital does not even have a policy on tattoos any longer; it's a total nonissue.
...I've had a few wives tell me of their husbands' tattoos after seeing mine. It's such a sweet, intimate, bonding moment, and I feel so privileged

source: allnurses dot com

 

[Naomi25]

@Naomi25 Yes....I do see what you mean, indeed.

It sort of seems to say, in a really restrained and minimalist way: "I want to be - am glad to be - tattooed" and "This is how I want to be identified".

Like you say, exactly, it's so simple...but it speaks deeply ('multitudes' is a good word there, too).

Well, yes, in a way. I was more thinking in line with what the tattoo was, more than the fact that it IS a tattoo, but I guess they're linked. I mean: think about it; Christ, even after his resurrection, retained his scarred 'hands' (which we actually know to be wrists...that's where the Romans drove the nails)...a permanent marking of what he did for us. So...it's a deep and meaningful symbol to place a permanent marking of that very cross in that very spot...don't you think?

 

[farouk]

Well, yes, in a way. I was more thinking in line with what the tattoo was, more than the fact that it IS a tattoo, but I guess they're linked. I mean: think about it; Christ, even after his resurrection, retained his scarred 'hands' (which we actually know to be wrists...that's where the Romans drove the nails)...a permanent marking of what he did for us. So...it's a deep and meaningful symbol to place a permanent marking of that very cross in that very spot...don't you think?

@Naomi25 I hadn't thought about it quite like that before, thank-you. A searching comment.

You do seem to have given it a lot of reflection from an angle which I had not really considered. Yes, you do seem to empathize with how she as a tattooed woman might well deeply feel about the ink that she desired to reside in her dermis at that placement.

Wrist was actually the placement that a young lady that my wife and I talked to received the wording of the whole of John 3.16. I think I mentioned it earlier.

Thank-you for making this thread special with your thoughtful reflection.

PS: The comment in post #179, above, also does talk about the wrist.

 

[farouk]

Thanks to all who voted so far in the poll!

NB: If you have not yet voted in the poll, please vote now!

 

[farouk]

@VictoryinJesus Your comment from back a bit

I only don’t encourage or overreact over her tattoos in they could cover her. As in where is the end...which would be the only reason I have for not urging her into being a tattoo artist; realizing she may be coming home with a new one everyday.

@VictoryinJesus Your analytical comment is clearly the result of much reflection - neither encouraging or overreacting, is a measured way of putting it, I'm sure. It is a fact that whereas years ago women who got tattooed at all might typically get one or two tiny ones, yet today they are not unusually in larger sizes also and more numerously. So in this respect your daughter is not unusual. I suppose you realized this?

 

[farouk]

Getting them is costly, removing them more so.

@michaelvpardo Small ones are not necessarily costly at all; the true cost is in their commitment to permanence. There is a sense in which if the design is faith based reflects a truly deep-seated conviction, the permanence aspect is thus to a considerable extent taken care of.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

@VictoryinJesus Your comment from back a bit @VictoryinJesus Your analytical comment is clearly the result of much reflection - neither encouraging or overreacting, is a measured way of putting it, I'm sure. It is a fact that whereas years ago women who got tattooed at all might typically get one or two tiny ones, yet today they are not unusually in larger sizes also and more numerously. So in this respect your daughter is not unusual. I suppose you realized this?

I’ve realize she is unique. Very unusual and love every quirky thing about her.

 

[farouk]

I’ve realize she is unique. Very unusual and love every quirky thing about her.

@VictoryinJesus ...you have finally come to love even — now after much soul searching —your daughter's tattoos?

 

[michaelvpardo]

Have you he got any idea how some of the comments on this thread make others feel- I have never regretted my tattoo, I am not unwise, ashamed, unchristian , stupid, I didn’t get the tattoo done to draw attention to myself, I love the tattoo and for me personally it has real meaning and significance - yet even those who know me and are my closest friends on this forum have generalised and branded Christians with tattoos in very negative ways.
It’s very wrong to tar everyone with the same brush just because it’s not something you agree with
Rita

Maybe you're just being oversensitive. I love my beer with my steak, my wine with my pasta, but I don't wear a cross while I drink them in public and I wouldn't dream of drinking some alcohol in church fellowship. You can label me a hypocrite, but love should constrain our behavior for the sake of others. Even with these posts that you take as insensitive or hurtful. Has it ever occurred to you that it's not about you, but about Him?

 

[farouk]

Maybe you're just being oversensitive. I love my beer with my steak, my wine with my pasta, but I don't wear a cross while I drink them in public and I wouldn't dream of drinking some alcohol in church fellowship. You can label me a hypocrite, but love should constrain our behavior for the sake of others. Even with these posts that you take as insensitive or hurtful. Has it ever occurred to you that it's not about you, but about Him?

@michaelvpardo Maybe if you yourself had received inking - I'm assuming you haven't - you would feel somewhat differently from what your post says.

 

[farouk]

it's in a spot she'd see it all the time, as others would too I suppose.

@Naomi25 Yes, it really lies in the deep, well-springs of motive as to whether such a tattoo is received for others to see or as a personal reminder, doesn't it?