What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos? The Catholic Answer

What does God say about tattoos? Scripture contains a single explicit text — "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, nor make in yourselves any figures or marks" (Leviticus xix. 28) — but this belonged to the ceremonial law of Israel and does not bind Christians as such. So is it a sin to get a tattoo? Not in itself. The Catholic answer is no verdict pulled from one verse, but a judgment formed by prudence, modesty, the motive of the heart, and reverence for the body that is the Temple of the Holy Ghost.

You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, nor make in yourselves any figures or marks: I am the Lord. — Leviticus xix. 28 (Douay-Rheims)

What does the Bible say about tattoos?

There is exactly one verse that names the practice, the one above. It stands in the Book of Leviticus, among the ceremonial prescriptions God gave to Israel — laws about cloth and seed, about the cutting of the flesh, about the marks the surrounding pagans made on themselves in mourning their dead and in worshipping false gods. The "cuttings" and "marks" forbidden are the rites of grief and idolatry of those nations; the Lord sets His people apart from them.

This is why the verse cannot be lifted out and handed to a Christian as a standing law. The ceremonial precepts of the Old Law were given to one people for one season, to teach and separate them until Christ should come; with His coming they were fulfilled and ceased to bind. The moral law, written on stone in the Ten Commandments, abides forever, because it is the law of human nature itself; the ceremonial law passed away. To wave Leviticus xix. 28 at a Christian as though it forbade ink today is the very error the Church warns against — to wrest a single line out of its place. This is the difference the Catholic Bible keeps, and what divides our reading from much Protestant proof-texting: Scripture is read whole, within the Church.

Are tattoos a sin?

A tattoo, considered simply as a mark on the skin, is not a sin. No commandment of God and no precept of the Church forbids it; Catholic teaching on tattoos is no blanket prohibition handed down from Leviticus, but the application of the moral law to a particular act. We say this plainly, because anxious souls are sometimes burdened with a guilt that doctrine does not impose, and the Church does not bind where God has not bound.

But this does not close the question. The body is not a blank surface on which a man may do as he pleases, for St Paul teaches what it is:

Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body. — 1 Corinthians vi. 19–20 (Douay-Rheims)

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, teaching the Sixth Commandment, draws the conclusion exactly: the Christian "is the Temple of the Holy Ghost," and our bodies are "the members of Jesus Christ." The body is not ours to dishonour; it was bought with the Blood of Christ, and it is destined to rise again.

So whether a particular tattoo is sinful depends not on the act in the abstract but on what is marked, why, and at what cost — much as a Christian's use of money or alcohol is judged by its use. We judge a tattoo by four measures: its content, its modesty, its motive, and its reverence for the body God has given.

How a Catholic judges: content, modesty, motive, reverence

The content. A mark that depicts something blasphemous, obscene, occult, or contrary to the Faith is sinful by reason of what it shows — not because it is a tattoo, but because it would be sinful in any form. To brand the body with an idol, a curse, a lewd image, or an emblem of false religion is to dishonour the temple. A cross or a holy name, by contrast, is in itself good, though even good things must answer the other three measures.

Modesty. Modesty governs how a Christian presents the body to others. A mark that draws the eye to what should be veiled, that is worn to provoke or to flaunt, offends the virtue that guards chastity. The same disposition that orders the body to purity orders it here, and our reflections on what God says about sex before marriage belong to it: the body is reverenced, not displayed, as we set out in what God says about modesty.

The motive. Here is the heart of it. Why does the soul want this mark? If it springs from vanity, from the craving to be noticed, from rebellion, from the restless need to remake oneself that the world calls self-expression, then the act is disordered at its root — not by the ink, but by the pride that drives it. The capital sins are not on the skin; they are in the will, and pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. A mark borne in genuine devotion is another thing entirely from a mark borne to glory in oneself.

Reverence for the body. Finally, the permanence and the cost weigh. The body is a gift held in trust, not to be needlessly disfigured. This forbids not every mark — God does not forbid the prudent adornment of what He made — but the treating of the body as a thing of no account. The Christian remembers that he is not his own.

Is it a sin to get a tattoo? The plain answer

Putting the measures together: to get a tattoo is not in itself a sin, and no one should be told that it is. But it can be sinful — gravely so — if what it depicts is evil, if it offends modesty, if its motive is vanity or rebellion, or if it treats the body God redeemed as a thing of no worth. The act takes its moral color from these things, not from the ink itself. To tell what is grave from what is light here is the ordinary work of a formed conscience — the matter of mortal and venial sin.

A Catholic already marked, who fears he has sinned, should not be tormented by scruples but should bring the matter, like every matter of conscience, to the tribunal Christ founded. "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 23). Where there was sin, it is washed away in confession; where there was none, the soul is freed of a false guilt. The mark on the skin is not the measure of the soul before God; the heart is.

What the question is really asking

Behind "are tattoos a sin" lies a better question, the one the Church always turns us back to: how do I honour God with this body He has given me and bought back at so great a price? It is answered not by a single line of Leviticus, nor by the slogans of an age that treats the body as raw material for the self, but by living in reverence — keeping the body as a temple, ordering it by the virtues, offering it whole to God. This is what it means to love God with the whole of oneself, the daily substance of the spiritual life.

So we answer neither with a verdict of "forbidden" stamped from one verse nor with the world's "do as you please," but as Catholics — by Scripture read with the Church, which measures the question of what God says about the body by prudence, modesty, motive, and the reverence owed to the Temple of the Holy Ghost.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does God say about tattoos?

Scripture names the practice once — "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, nor make in yourselves any figures or marks" (Leviticus xix. 28) — but this belonged to the ceremonial law of Israel, which separated God's people from pagan rites of mourning and idolatry, and does not bind Christians as such. God's standing word about the body is rather that it is "the temple of the Holy Ghost… and you are not your own" (1 Corinthians vi. 19), to be honoured and not dishonoured.

Are tattoos a sin?

A tattoo, considered simply as a mark on the skin, is not a sin; no commandment of God and no precept of the Church forbids it. But a particular tattoo can be sinful — gravely so — if what it depicts is blasphemous, obscene, or occult, if it offends modesty, if its motive is vanity or rebellion, or if it treats the body God redeemed as a thing of no worth. The act takes its moral color from its content, modesty, motive, and reverence for the body.

What does the Catholic Church say about tattoos?

The Church gives no blanket prohibition. She teaches, with the Catechism of the Council of Trent, that the Christian "is the Temple of the Holy Ghost" and our bodies "the members of Jesus Christ," and she distinguishes the abiding moral law from the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law that passed away in Christ. So she judges a tattoo not by Leviticus alone but by prudence, modesty, motive, and the reverence owed to the body bought "with a great price."

What does God say about tattoos and piercings?

The same principles apply to both. Neither is forbidden in itself, for the single Levitical text was ceremonial and does not bind Christians, and Scripture does not number bodily adornment among the sins. What matters is the same fourfold measure: that nothing blasphemous or immodest be displayed, that the motive not be vanity or rebellion, and that the body, redeemed and destined to rise, be reverenced rather than needlessly disfigured.

Does Leviticus 19:28 forbid tattoos for Christians today?

No. Leviticus xix. 28 stands among the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law, given to one people for one season until Christ came, which ceased to bind with His coming. The moral law of the Ten Commandments abides forever; the ceremonial law passed away.

Is it a sin to get a tattoo if I already have one?

A Catholic already marked should not be tormented by scruples. Where the mark was sinful in content or motive, the sin is washed away in confession — "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 23) — and where there was no sin, the soul is simply freed of a false guilt. A Catholic troubled here should seek the counsel of a confessor.

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Sources. The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version: Leviticus xix. 28; 1 Corinthians vi. 19–20; John xx. 23. Catechism of the Council of Trent (Roman Catechism, 1566), Part Three, on the Sixth Commandment (the Christian as the Temple of the Holy Ghost; the body as a member of Jesus Christ) and on the Fifth Commandment (the duty of reverence and care toward the body); Part Three, on the distinction between the moral and the ceremonial precepts of the Law.