Tattoos and God.

This morning I had a high school classmate ask me about why I got my tattoo. Poor guy, I gave him the longest explanation possible. The explanation is as follows.

My decision to get a tattoo has not been an easy one. As a person who follows God and seeks to do what He says in His Word, I've struggled with this decision heavily for about two years. Leviticus 19:28 was the main reason I did.

But as I looked more into it, I found much more in the New Law that backed up my decision to do it. We know that when Christ came, he abolished the old law and wrote it upon our hearts. Basically, if I were to follow Lev. 19:28, I would also have to follow the fact that I have to have 2 tassels on my cloak (I don't even wear a cloak), let a priest examine my house, and all sorts of other odd laws that Lev. and Deuteronomy outlines.
This is not to say that the old law doesn't always pertain. The law He has written on our hearts is shown even in the Gentiles (Romans 2:14-15) and we live by it. Think about the 10 Commandments. Even those who don't believe often still follow the commandment not to murder.
More about the law being on our hearts:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33b-34

Another reason was because I want to glorify God with my body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
To me, saving myself for marriage, eating right, keeping my body healthy, and visibly doing something to glorify God and to be all things to all people so that a few may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:31-33) is the best way to keep my body as a temple. Just like people could look at the temple in Jesus' day and know that it was a temple, I want people to look at me and know that my body is a temple for Christ, I want to use it as a ministry tool and get people talking to me about faith and Christ who normally wouldn't.

In addition, I will be getting another tattoo over my heart after I am married. My decision for this was based on Song of Solomon 8:6- "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave."

One more thing:
As a writer, I found myself writing stories that were, well, anything but God-pleasing in the last year. Dark, moody, and worldly were all words that a person could use to describe what I was writing. With this on my right arm, it reminds me that my whole life is a ministry, including the words I put on paper (or on the internet).