Tattoos, Piercing and Judaism

With the following of strict guidelines that have to do with the Torah and most other religious texts, most do not prohibit the people that follow Judaism to do anything that deforms your body in any way, such as tattoos and piercing. Many Judaism's are wondering why they cannot get tattoos and piercing and are actually rebelling against not having them.

Significance

Judaism along with the Old Testament believe that God did not want any markings on the bodies of the Jewish people. The Jewish people also hate the idea of tattoos due to the Holocaust. Jewish were tattooed to make sure the German people knew who they were and they were more easily identified.

Misconception

Having a tattoo or piercing is said to not let you be able to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, but that is only a belief. However, in an Jewish cemetery you might find the people that have piercings and tattoos be buried in a separate place from the other Jewish people that are buried in the cemetery that do not have piercing and tattoos.

Identification

Judaism goes by the Torah, and that goes into the first five books of the Old Testament. The Torah does not go into great detail about the tattoos or the piercing but it does make a reference to it according to the Leviticus Chapter 19 Section 28. There it talks about not cutting your body or putting tattoo marks. Also in Exodus, Genesis, Deuteronomy and I Kings all verify that the Lord did not want you to mark anything onto your body.

Considerations

Western Jewish woman have now pierced their ears since it has become the modern of times. But men still cannot. They have now sects and in these new sects if you have piercing or tattoos you can still be buried in the cemeteries these new sects are called Modern Day Jews. Some even have marks and piercing all over for many around to see.

Warnings

Tattoos and piercing are very different. Piercing are not as permanent as the tattoos they can close if let be. Tattoos could be easy to hide but they are very hard to take off so make sure that if you get one, you know what you are doing and do not get one on a whim.