Expert: Fr. Michael - 6/8/2006

Question
Does the Catholic church accept a religious tattoo? Like a cross or
Jesus' crucifixtion?  

Answer
       Tattooing is regarded in Sacred Scripture as a pagan practice:  "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks:  I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:28/DR).  It is
considered to be a mutilation of the body in contravention of the Fifth Commandment.  The fact that the tattoo may be of a religious object does not justify the practice.  Exhibitionism is intrinsically unCatholic as falling
short of the virtue of humility.   Would Our Lord have had a tattoo?  Our Lady?  Of course not.

       There is another argument against the practice, which relates to the Fifth Commandment, which forbids unnecessary harming of one's body, the Temple of the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul calls it.  Catholic moral theology
teaches that by the Principle of Totality, a person is not permitted to authorize the mutilation of his own body except for the benefit of the whole body by the principle of totality.  Mutilation of the body can be justified
only on the supposition that it is necessary or useful toward obtaining some physical benefit.

       The practice of tattooing involves an unnecessary medical risk of acquiring the dangerous virus Hepatitis C.  This virus, once acquired through such practices as tattooing, can erupt virulently, or it can lie dormant in the body for twenty or more years after the tattooing incident.  Hepatitis can destroy the liver and thus weaken the body until it dies in agony.