blog.marcwiesner.com

As a Jewish person living in California the question of tattooing has popped up on my mind occasionally. Not that there’s any indigenous or deep cultural tie with tattooing in California but let’s face it, if there were a body-modification capital I think you’s have to give it to the state with LA, Hollywood, and San Francisco, no? Yeah.

Anyway…permanent and purposeful scarring of the body is prohibited in Judaism as I understand it. Not that it’s explicitly stated in the scriptures, but having a tattoo will pretty much guarantee you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery because of the taboo that’s grown around it as a breaking of the convenient that’s formed with G-d by virtue of having a corporeal body.

This afternoon I think I’ve cracked the nut (in my own rationale at least).

Start with this: it’s a fallacy to speak of The Body as if it’s one indistinguishable unit. We all know that the body has parts, right? Arms, legs and whatnot. Given, each of these can be tattooed, but will the Rabbi ask the family of a man who’s had a leg amputated if he had ink done there at some point?

The body is divisible. Now…Jewdaicia would have me believe that when I die some part of me, G-d willing, will enjoy some measure of salvation, right? This part of me could be considered the spiritual component of my body whereas what is left behind will be the physical component. This is another way The Body can be split: physical and spiritual.

Seems to me a permanent and purposeful scarring of the body (which a tattoo is considered being) would only be permanent if it were applied to the spiritual component. If a person, out of depression, cut themselves, would not the attitude, the spiritual state of desolation of the individual be a greater infringement than the mere action that it inspires? The very fact that the depression leads to the cutting suggests this. Consider the other results of depression: feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, guilt that can turn against family and friends.

Contrast that with the thoughts that can inspire one get get a tattoo. For many people, a tattoo is a way of beautifying the body. It’s art. Is the painter a sinner? Is the gardener who beautifies his home offensive to G-d? The body will deteriorate. The flesh that is colored will rot. The only part of the body that can be considered subject to permanence is the soul. How can the soul that desired to enhance beauty be condemned?

Thoughts?