Tattoo Taboos? The History of Religious Tattoos

From the arms of early modern sailors to the profile of Mike Tyson, the body has always been a canvas for display. The canvas shows the owner’s identity – chosen and chosen. In ancient Rome, slaves who escaped from their masters were forcibly branded or tattooed on their foreheads if they were recaptured, as were slaves who were sent to the mines. These facial tattoos exposed the crime and were difficult to conceal. However, many pilgrims in the Middle Ages chose to tattoo their bodies when they traveled to the Holy Land – and they still do today.

Tattoos have been used to show religious identity for thousands of years. However, people have always had misconceptions and misunderstandings about tattoos inspired by faith.

The tattoo is of St. George and a dragon,

and the tool is a 200 to 300-year-old stencil.

In Latin, tattoo means mark (stigma), from the Greek noun στίγμα and the verb στίζω, meaning "to pierce." Although stigma simply means "to mark," it later became synonymous with tattoo or branding. In the ancient world, where there were no Social Security numbers, scars and marks indicated identity. Bakers were recognized by burns on their forearms, former slaves were recognized in the baths by the whip marks on their backs, and soldiers were picked out from a crowd by the marks of ink. Vegetius, a Roman military manual writer in the late fourth or early fifth century, said that in his time (and possibly earlier), Roman soldiers were given tattoo marks after training. [Epitoma Rei Militaris, Book I, Chapter 8] The medical writer Aetius also tells us that tattoos were often inked on soldiers' hands, and that the ink used in the sixth century was made from leek juice.

The mummy with a clear tattoo on his right hand is called Chiribaya.
It is now in the Algarrobal Museum near the port of Ilo in southern Peru.

In ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the human body has a long history of being used to convey grief and religious belonging. Jordan Rosenblum, a professor of religion and Judaism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told me that this is also true in Judaism. He pointed out that despite the mainstream view that Jews with tattoos cannot be buried in Jewish cemeteries, tattoos still have a place in their faith and have a long history. Leviticus 19:28 does prohibit "tattooing on the body", but some Jews in the ancient Near East still tattooed themselves for the purpose of commemorating deceased loved ones.

A third-century tombstone of a "Christian" in the Baths of Diocletian in Rome,
In memory of Licinia Amias, ἀμία means "tuna".
The tombstone has some Christian symbols.
The Vatican Museum has a cast of the tombstone.

In the Late Antiquity (200-800 AD) of the Roman transition, tattoos also began to be used as a medium to indicate Christian identity. In the past, Christians who were sent to the mines would be forcibly branded on their foreheads. Although there is no direct evidence, tattoos in late antiquity may have "reappeared" the above practices to a certain extent. Documents show that "extreme" Christian sects often used tattoos to show their piety. For example, Victor of Vita, an author of a study of the Vandal invasion in the 480s, said that tattoos also occurred in Manichaeism.

The most famous facial tattoo is probably the one above Tyson's eye.

Facial tattoos were still somewhat feared by mainstream Roman society, partly because of associations with slaves and criminals in the past. The edict of Emperor Constantine in 315/316 effectively banned branding and tattooing of the faces of slaves and criminals [Theodosian Code, 9.40.2], but tattoos on the rest of the body were not regulated. Facial tattoos were either controversial or shocking, and they remain so today.

The woman with tattoos on her face was photographed in the Idomeni refugee camp on the border between Greece and Macedonia on March 20, 2016

According to medieval saints, people in Northumbria in northern England had religious tattoos until the 8th century. In addition, a female body from Sudan in the 7th century, mummified by natural factors, is now in the British Museum. The woman had a tattoo on her inner thigh that meant "St. Michael". The pattern is MIXAHΛ in ancient Greek or Coptic, meaning "Archangel Michael", with a cross on top.

Cross tattoo designs commonly used by Egyptian Coptic Christians

Today it is difficult to know the motivations behind these tattoos; however, it is certain that people chose to have these symbols tattooed with strong personal meaning. Later, there is evidence that Coptic Christians used tattoos during pilgrimages to ward off evil spirits or bad luck. Cross tattoos have always been popular among Egyptian Coptic Christianity, and some believers will visit tattoo artists during ceremonies (mulid) to commemorate saints.

Cover of John Carswell's book Coptic Tattoo Designs (second edition, 1958).
These wooden blocks were used by Copts on their arms during their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Razuk family still uses these blocks today.

Crusaders who traveled to the Holy Land recorded that tattoos could also serve as permanent proof of pilgrimage. Dr. Anna Felicity Friedman of the Center for the Study of Tattoo History and Culture has done extensive research on pilgrimage tattoos. She notes that “tattoo artists and clients may have drawn inspiration from common Christian symbols and imagery to create tattoos that symbolize their faith.” “Christian symbols such as the chi-rho or the ichthus were common in inscriptions in late medieval antiquity.”

A small bronze tattoo tool from Gurob, Egypt (c. 1450 BC), now in the Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.

 

Friedman noted that tattoos aren't always a direct expression of faith. As she put it, they "don't necessarily symbolize faith, but they do commemorate the journey." She recently visited the famous Razuq Tattoo parlor in Jerusalem and got a tattoo, which pilgrims have received for the past 700 years.

Wassim Razzouk's tattoo of the classic Jerusalem cross has been around since the 17th century.

The long history of religious tattoos shows that the power behind them is worth exploring. Forced tattoos can indicate slavery and oppression (such as tattooing prisoners in concentration camps during ethnic cleansing), while voluntary tattoos, on the other hand, show strong personal motivations. Tattoos can commemorate grief, faith, heritage, and even journeys. The long existence of Razuk Tattoo Shop shows that the human body is still the most sacred canvas.