Are Tattoos and Piercings Allowed in Jewish Law?

Shalom, I am Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg, Ezra-Habonim, Niles Township Jewish Congregation. This is a video is about the question of whether it is inappropriate for people to tattoo and pierce themselves from Jewish point of view. Basically, the Torah prohibits permanent tattoos and the reason it gives is that in ancient times the knight priest would tattoo themselves for idolatress purposes to worship idols and the Torah forbids us to imitate the ways of idol worshipers. Now, of course today’s people do not tattoo themselves for idol worship. The question is do we still prohibit tattoos? Basically, in the consensus among the Jewish people is yes tattoos are forbidden by Jewish tradition not so much, because we are worried about idolatry anymore we have not for along time in regard, but because it mars the beautiful body that God gave us.

Now, that does not mean the Jews who have tattoos are forbidden from having honors of the synagogue or been buried in Jewish cemeteries and certainly people who come form other traditions and join the Jewish people who have tattoos already that is understandable. It is very difficult to remove tattoos although people are trying and so you should definitely encourage our young people who think very carefully before they befoul their bodies in that sense with tattoos. Judaism does not see it as artistic personal choice on the body, but rather befouling the body in a way that we should not do.

The second issue is about piercing. Now, clearly there are piercing that are socially acceptable like woman’s pierced ears. I do not think any culture has a problem with that and a certain cultures pierced noses are more popular and even now a days you see some me with pierced ears. In fact in the Bible it shows that man had pierced ears in the story of Exodus 22 when the story of the golden calf when the Aaron tries to delay of the building of the idol, he tells the man to get home and get their wife’s jewelry, the Torah there says that the man ripped of the earrings that they have and gave it to Aaron to make the golden calf right there.

But basically it is an issue of what is acceptable by the society. And of course certain areas of the body are not meant to pierced by general convention. So the Rabbinical basically suggest that we are tattooing like in the case of tattooing where the wearing of pierced ears or pierced noses, or pierced body parts is offensive when seen. Those parts of the body should not be pierced. In addition to those parts of the body, there is a lot meant to be seen well, they should not be pierced and if it goes against the general convention then it is probably advisable not to pierce. Of course piercing is something that it may cause some medical harms like infection but it is repairable in the sense that the pieces can grow over overtime, it is not irreparable. However, again when people have the general reaction of horror when they see somebody who is very pierced, it is a good indication that it is probably not advisable to do that. So it is really a question of societal convention more than anything that is specifically prohibited. Hope that clarifies the general thinking of the matter.


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