Is the huge trend in Tattooing and Body Piercing a sign of the End Times?

I know years ago (20 maybe?) my Mom gave me one of those new "Living Bibles" where it's written so idiots can understand (gee thanks, Mom). Anyway, I know that book changes some terminology, updating it so the common modern man can understand it. I could swear I remember reading a section that talked about towards the last days many people would be tattooed and covered with body piercings (it also talked about how the seasons would start to blur into one another, but that's another topic of discussion). It just seems like more and more people are becoming tattooed and pierced nowadays. Too be honest, I think tattoos are very ugly (my opinion). There's nothing worse than a beautiful building with graffitti sprayed all over the outside. The same applies for a human being covered in tattoos. As an artist, I tire of art. Every few years I take my wall painting/drawings down and have to put something new up. I'd be the same with a tattoo. I'd get sick of it......so, I would never permanently ink my skin for fear of regretting it. Also, there is nothing more disgusting then wrinkly, old, tattooed flesh. Yuck!
I have a pierced ear that I got about 20 years back (before it became a huge trend). No more piercings for me. Why? It would just feel wrong at this point, and I'd feel like a follower and a conformist (ironic because most people getting tattooed feel they are being non-conformist). My youth was spent rebelling with drugs/alcohol and rock and roll.....so I'm no angel at all. But, I just don't get this tattoo/body piercing thing. I don't like pain at all (and both procedures are painful). So, why is everyone clamouring to this trend? Everybody and their brother is getting tattooed! Also, many of these people get creepy, demonic tattoos (demons, skulls, snakes, etc). Not all, but very many. I see tattooing/piercing as a sign of decadence. Embracing primitive ways....going backward. I know it's been around forever, but it's prevalence in modern society has increased ten fold over the last 10 years.

The Bible warns us against cuttings in our flesh in Leviticus 19:28 which says, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

It is repulsive to see someone deform the body that the Lord made in perfection. The Lord admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

If we are to glorify God in our bodies, how do body piercings glorify Christ?
Is body piercing about rebellion, self-mutilation, conforming to others, vanity, disobedience?
Because if it we're in trouble....

Are we living in a day that the Bible speaks of in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Do most people today not believe their body is the temple of God. Bottom line in regard to body piercings would be to ask the popular youth slogan, "What Would Jesus Do?" I don't believe we will ever see Jesus with any body piercings that He placed on Himself. I can't imagine Jesus with a tongue ring or a navel piercing. The only scars on His body are the nail pierced hands and feet put there by the evil men that crucified Him. They were not self inflicted.

Sorry, if I rambled, but I'm on lunch break and tried to get this thought out as fast as possible.

They were tatooing themselves during WWI and WWII- circus people followed- Some people like to make statements. I dont think it has anything to do with the emminent end of the world.

Well, if I could go back in time and tell my young, 19-year old self to put that 4th Jagermeister down and not to walk into that Tallahassee tatoo parlor where a small dolphin on my hip looked especially classy...I probably would.

Does this mean I should get used to the smell of sulphur now?

I think God will forgive me.......you only have to ask and mean it.

[edit on 24-5-2006 by sdp333]

Interesting post. My second job these days is a tattoo artist - used to be my sole income.

Lev 19 says not to cut yourself or tattoo yourself in remembrance of the dead. Then again, the same chapter says not to wear clothing made of two different materials. How many do that?

I usually tell my clients it is a bad idea to put someones name on you and not tattoo over the dead, but it is not so bad I think.

Sure, many get ugly tattoos, but there are times where putting art on the body with good symbology behind it. I have a shirt that says "The body is Gods temple, it up to us to wallpaper it."

I have tattoos all over me. The one you see in my avatar is not on me, but it is my favorite that I've done. My second favorite is a portrait of Christ. I cannot see that is being something that would send one to hell.

[edit on 24-5-2006 by godservant]

Many people use their bodies as a means pf personal expression - I have two tattoos for personal reasons, outward identifiers for others who notice such things.

Very rarely do I run across people who actively ask what they mean, and why I got them.

The first is a self designed phoenix - symbol of the ressurection.
The second, the I-ching symbol for father/heaven.

Whether or not they have anything to do with the end times is unknown to me.

Leviticus was in the old testament, correct?

Originally posted by dgtempe
They were tatooing themselves during WWI and WWII- circus people followed- Some people like to make statements. I dont think it has anything to do with the emminent end of the world.

And what is the universal statement they are making?
Think about it......

Ya! My Dad has tattoos that he got in the Korean War.
I asked him why he did it and he said, "Cause I'm tough."
Basically, my Dad was a young idiot proving to his peers how cool he was. I called him on it and he admitted, "You do alot of foolish things when your young."

Originally posted by sdp333
I think God will forgive me.......you only have to ask and mean it.

True. What's your theory on the present trend though?

Originally posted by godservant
I have a shirt that says "The body is Gods temple, it up to us to wallpaper it."

LOL! That's funny.

Originally posted by godservant
I have tattoos all over me. The one you see in my avatar is not on me, but it is my favorite that I've done. My second favorite is a portrait of Christ. I cannot see that is being something that would send one to hell.

Interesting...

Originally posted by zerotolerance

Originally posted by sdp333
I think God will forgive me.......you only have to ask and mean it.

True. What's your theory on the present trend though?

It is simply that....a trend. It will fall out of favor the same way that bee-hive hairdo's, jelly bracelets, leg warmers and Boy George did.

Ummmm.....except we won't be able to put them in a box marked "yard sale".

I personally think it looks disgusting,my father got a tatoo on his arm in WW 2,all I remember him saying he wish he had never gotten it,plus my mom always said that sailors got tattoos ,although I have 3 son's oldest against my wishes got one when he turned 18,my 16 yr old wanted a piercing thru his lip,after talking to his mother she came to visit,next thing I know she gets her belly button piercied and his lip was pierced,I'm afraid it just the in thing to do,maybe I'm just getting old but those things aren't for me

In response to the original question:

If enough people take this biblical passage as having enough significance, the law of determination tells us that these people will inevitably find a way to persecute people based on one simple and trivial coninciedence.

People are, and always have been, judgemental.

So much empahsis on the "end times" make me wonder if it's really some subconsious manifestation of people being tired of the monotony of their daily lives, problems they spend too much time focusing on instead of constuctive solutions and too much reliance on a text that does more to instill fear and seperatist ideoligies within a certian subsect of the Christian population.

And just to dispel any criticism - I am a Christian myself.

"Whatever world a man holds most clearly in his mind, so he is destined to achieve."

*edit for double post

Sorry about that...




[edit on 24-5-2006 by Pyrotechnocracy23]

What are you people talking about? Tattooing isn't really a trend. For as long as there has been people walking on earth, there have been people who mark their bodies with "tattoo", burns, scars, paint, piercings etc. Look around the world, there are so many tribal people who use tattoos as a religious and sacred practice. People have been getting tattoos and other forms of bodily decorations since before Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha walked the earth.

My two cents (for what it's worth)...tattoos area a global thing not just western culture. Maori tattooing is an ancient and culturally significant part of Moari life and history.

Certain (many) tribes throughout africa have not only piercing traditions but tattooing traditions as well.

Also traditions that could be considered body mutilation such as lip rings and ear lobe elongation all stem from similar cultural, historical and tribal mythologies.

China, Japan and even parts of the middle east have used tattoos religiously or culturally for centuries.

Since it's been going on in some form or other since man discovered chisels and ink I would think this is not a sign of the end times.

Just my opinion of course.

wiki link:
en.wikipedia.org...

Spiderj

Originally posted by worldwatcher
What are you people talking about? Tattooing isn't really a trend. For as long as there has been people walking on earth, there have been people who mark their bodies with "tattoo", burns, scars, paint, piercings etc. y decorations since before Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha walked the earth.

Exactly! Tattooing and body piercing has been around for a long time! It's not exactly a new thing! I don't think it has any relevance to the end times!

.
I always feel sorry for people with tattoos. For some reason I've always associated tattoos with low self esteem.

Never met anyone who hasn't, at some point, admitted to regret about having tattoos, which again, makes me feel sorry for them.

Before anyone says anything against tattooing, consider the following:

Lev 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

- Check your shirt tags. Are your clothes mixed material?


Lev 19:23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.

- Do you know what you're eating?


Lev 19:27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.

- Haircut anyone?


Christ taught against such small matters. It is not so complicated as many wish to make it. Simply "Do to others as you would have others do to you." and "Love your neighbor as yourself".

With that, nothing else really matters.

To get into all these laws, is what Christ taught against when watching the pharisees and sadusees.

To worldwatcher and DodgeG1,
I stated in my first post that: "I know it's been around forever, but it's prevalence in modern society has increased ten fold over the last 10 years."
Yes, I know it's been around forever. It has increased ten fold here in the States over the last decade (I don't know about the rest of the world).
Also, it has only been attached to "pagan" religions and rituals.....not Christian religions.

I think there is an increase in tattooing because it is now "safer" and easier to get. Fifty years or so ago, you'd probably have to go down by the wharf or the seediest part of town to get a tattoo. Before that you would probably had to have sailed to the South Seas.... it's not that people didn't want them, it was more of a challenge to get one and then of course the needle issue. Now that it is regulated and there are rules and laws concerning how tattoo parlors practice, people are finding easier to acquire one.

I hate that word pagan, I know it's the word Christians use to describe non christians, kind of how Muslims use "infidel" to describe non christians. Ridiculous.
And are you sure that tattoos are mainly associated with us pagans???? because I have seen an awful lot of Jesus, Virgin Mary and cross tattoos in my lifetime.

[edit on 5-24-2006 by worldwatcher]

Originally posted by godservant
To get into all these laws, is what Christ taught against when watching the pharisees and sadusees.

To some degree you're right....but I just can't see Jesus being into tattoos or piercings.
He's going to see His temple with graffitti all over it and frown. That's not to say he wouldn't forgive it though.