Tattoo you?

The craze of 'body modification' (BM) has caught on among young people and even young Christians too.

The diverse methods of BM include: piercing, tattooing, scarring and even branding. This appears not to be just a craze that will die out tomorrow, but an identifiable part of postmodern subculture.

Why do they do it? Usually youth trends have to do with staking a claim to personal identity, often, but not always, in rebellion against their parents' gneration. There are BM sites on the internet, and it seems that BM shops are proliferating in the USA.

Christians, it seems, have bought into the notion that fashion is, for all intents and purposes, a matter in which God is disinterested. But is this true? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and aren’t we meant to offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God (1 Corinthians 6.19; Romans 12.1)?

Men and women

Not many Christians had problems with women wearing earrings, and piercing their ears inn order to wear them. In our unisex culture, perhaps the thinking has been that if something is all right for women, then it’s OK for men too.

But a case can be made that the symbology of body piercing runs at a much deeper level than popular fashion acknowledges. At the heart of the symbol is a distinction between men and women.

In the Bible, the wearing of earrings in pierced ears is mentioned in connection with the beautiful woman in the Song of Solomon (SoS 1.10,11).

Delicacy is difficult at this point of the argument, but the fact is that Scripture seems to indicate that woman in the marriage act is a ‘piercee’. I understand that the Hebrew word translated female in Genesis 1.27 comes from the root word ‘to pierce’. Within marriage, of course, no stigma at all attaches to this, but outside of marriage, this is referred to as a ‘humbling’ (Deuteronomy 22.29).

Man, however, was not made to be pierced, hence the Bible’s clear statements against homosexual acts.

Piercing may or may not humble a woman, depending on many factors, but piercing always brings a man down. Since woman was created to be under the loving headship of her husband, piercing can be seen as consistent with that calling.

Piercing, therefore, is a token of being under the dominion of another. This is clearly seen in the references to slavery and voluntary slavery within the Old Testament Hebrew community. So, if a Hebrew servant, at the time of his manumission, wanted to live permanently as the servant of his master, this was to be indicated in a rite in which his ear was pierced with an awl (Exodus 21.6, Deuteronomy 15.17). The fact that a pierced ear serves as a sign of permanent subordination suggests that it was not practised by males in general, or else it would not have been a distinguishing mark.

It may be recalled that Israelite men took off their golden earrings and contributed them to Aaron for the making of the golden calf (Exodus 32.1-4). But out of what condition had they just escaped? They had been slaves in Egypt. This could be interpreted either as some of the booty from the spoiling of the Egyptians, but is not inconsistent with the idea that slaves wore earrings.

It is interesting to note that, as men in our present day culture began to wear ear furniture, women began piercing multiple holes in their ears. But it has not stopped there. Piercing parlours now routinely pierce ears, lips, eyebrows, tongues, noses, navels and other less mentionable parts of the anatomy!

Does it hurt?

For those who cringe at the thought of the pain involved, some would argue that pain is central to the experience. The BM subculture often boasts of the pain involved, and is obviously not unconnected with sado-masochism.

Anyone who believes that this current craze for BM is simply a fashion statement is not merely being naive, but is ignorant of the literature of BM devotees. For them, it seems the more radical piercings are self-consciously ‘religious’ experiences. The association with paganism is often known, understood and cherished. Could it be that BM is just another expression of our Christ-rejecting culture?

The deepest need of fallen human beings is for atonement. This is extremely important to understand. There is only one God-provided atonement, and that was at Calvary through the pierced and risen Christ. A society where people reject this atonement must inevitably turn to providing their own personal pseudo-atonements, typically involving the infliction of pain upon oneself.

Men and women

Does it hurt?

Dexter Wing

Main Articles

Other articles