# Jews can't get tattoos? Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744 "2008-07-16T20:48:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/21 "2008-07-16T23:35:48Z")
[Would you believe the New York Times ran an article on this very topic today?](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/fashion/17SKIN.html) > [@](#): > > “I’d say, ‘If you get a tattoo, you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery,’” said Ms. Carnes, the owner of a video equipment company in Carlsbad, Calif. “For no real reason, just that’s what my parents told me.” > > Nearly every Jew, from those who go to synagogue only on holidays to those who dutifully follow Jewish law, has heard that adage. > […] > But the edict isn’t true. The eight rabbinical scholars interviewed for this article, from institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University, said it’s an urban legend. It was most likely started because a specific cemetery had a policy against tattoos. Jewish parents and grandparents picked up on it and over time, their distaste for tattoos was presented as scriptural doctrine. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/22 "2008-07-16T23:40:40Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] So all those movies, like _The Last Temptation of Christ_, showing Jewish women with tattoos all over their hands and legs… they’re wrong? Or was it common for Jews to ignore that particular Biblical law? [/QUOTE] Ahhh… henna. Not permanent. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/23 "2008-07-17T00:22:45Z")
I can’t help but wonder how and when the negative attitudes regarding tattoos got started. In Western culture, it _usually_ seems that the more tattooed a person is, the more dangerous or undesirable they are. The most tattooed of all are outlaw bikers and prisoners, and aside from a nod to people who live legally and creatively outside the economic mainstream, and are “expected” to be different, tats seem to be associated with criminality. In saying this, I’m just expressing what I believe the mainstream perception to be, not my own opinion. But how did this happen? Outlaws today get tattoos to be rebellious. But was there a time in remote antiquity when tattoos were expected and proper, and people rebelled by refusing to have them? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/24 "2008-07-17T00:41:19Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] But how did this happen? Outlaws today get tattoos to be rebellious. But was there a time in remote antiquity when tattoos were expected and proper, and people rebelled by refusing to have them? [/QUOTE] I’d say even nowadays, the idea that tattoos=outlaws/rebels is pretty much fading. Most inked people I know lead pretty mundane lives. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/25 "2008-07-17T00:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I can’t help but wonder how and when the negative attitudes regarding tattoos got started. In Western culture, it _usually_ seems that the more tattooed a person is, the more dangerous or undesirable they are. The most tattooed of all are outlaw bikers and prisoners, and aside from a nod to people who live legally and creatively outside the economic mainstream, and are “expected” to be different, tats seem to be associated with criminality. In saying this, I’m just expressing what I believe the mainstream perception to be, not my own opinion. But how did this happen? Outlaws today get tattoos to be rebellious. But was there a time in remote antiquity when tattoos were expected and proper, and people rebelled by refusing to have them? [/QUOTE] IIRC, in the past people that had a lot of ink WERE (mostly) in fact felons, bikers and generally undesirables…or in the Navy…or viewed by the masses as such… 😉 It’s funny how things change. I recall when having an earring as a male was considered taboo (but only in the left ear! Never in the right or you’re GAY!), and that tats were generally frowned upon, and now…not so much. You see so many people with gauged (gaged?) ears, nose rings, tats, you name it and most of those people I’ve encountered are mostly cool folks. But tats that aren’t covereable by corporate outfits are still cause for exclusion from employment as part of corporate uniform policy, as are piercings that are considered extreme. I wonder if that is even legal. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/26 "2008-07-17T01:41:08Z")
[QUOTE=susan] If we’re talking unfair, I’d say it’s a damned shame that _no one_ can enter the temple ever again. [/QUOTE] I have to say this takes the thread right here. And all Jewish-related threads ever, actually. At the crux of all these proscriptions, biblical etc, is that one should be seeking to make mitzvot their life. All of Isreal is one body and one soul. What one jew does to their body they do to all Jews. When one Jew makes a mitzvah, all enjoy the fruits of that mitzvah. The body is a symbol of your covenant with G-d and so you want to keep it in a good condition. How far this is taken depends on the Jew and where they want to fit into their religious life. (As my friend Adam would say, “I’m not a Jew! I’m Jew-_ish_!” Adam thinks himself very clever.) I know at least 2 Jewish guys with tattoos, a father and son who got matching ones to honor their son/brother. The tattoos are on their backs and easily covered. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/27 "2008-07-17T01:56:26Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] But how did this happen? Outlaws today get tattoos to be rebellious. But was there a time in remote antiquity when tattoos were expected and proper, and people rebelled by refusing to have them? [/QUOTE] As far as Western European cultures go, in antiquity many of the groups that fought against the Romans, such as the Celts, were tattooed. Tattooing became associated with barbarians; civilized (and later, Christian and non-pagan) people did not do such things. So tattooing fell out of favor. I believe that tattooing began to enter European culture again in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, when expeditions began to encounter heavily tattooed societies in the South Pacific, such as the Marquesans and the Maori of New Zealand. Sailors got tattoos as a badge of their travels in exotic lands. It may have been that the practice spread from sailors to other raffish or outsider elements in society. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/28 "2008-07-17T03:27:13Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] [bris] [/QUOTE] I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/29 "2008-07-17T03:29:02Z")
Asked and answered. Many thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/30 "2008-07-17T04:18:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Both earrings and nose-rings seem to have been pretty common amongst the Biblical Israelites, so I don’t think that body piercing is included in the anti-tattoo injunction. The only things I can see being problematic is if… Isn’t a particular sort of ear piercing emblematic of slavery, in the Bible? While that wouldn’t be a prohibition, it would certainly be an argument against getting such a piercing. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/31 "2008-07-17T04:59:28Z")
Chronos: > [@](#): > > Isn’t a particular sort of ear piercing emblematic of slavery, in the Bible? While that wouldn’t be a prohibition, it would certainly be an argument against getting such a piercing. Yes, it’s true that if a Jewish slave chooses to remain with his master after his six-year ordinary period of servitude is up, he gets his ear pierced in a very specific manner, in front of a court of law. Nonetheless, ornamental ear piercings don’t seem to carry any stigma that I’m aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/32 "2009-10-30T18:02:14Z")
This article addresses tattoos near the end: ['New Jews' stake claim to faith, culture - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/28/new.and.emergent.jews/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/33 "2009-10-30T20:17:52Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I know at least 2 Jewish guys with tattoos, a father and son who got matching ones to honor their son/brother. The tattoos are on their backs and easily covered. Having lived in both cities, I’d say tattoos are as common in Tel Aviv as they are in New York. The mall near my house has at least 4 tattoo parlors. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/34 "2009-10-30T20:23:58Z")
In honor of Hallow’een, it’s a zombie thread looking for braaaaaaaaaaaains! Granted, **Elendil’s Heir** ’s post is relevant. But still… braaaaaaaaaaaains! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/35 "2009-10-30T20:26:31Z")
I always thought it would be pretty amusing to tattoo “Leviticus 19.28”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/36 "2009-10-30T20:31:35Z")
If I owned a tattoo parlor, I’d call it “Marks Upon You.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/37 "2009-10-30T20:33:10Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > If I owned a tattoo parlor, I’d call it “Marks Upon You.” Sounds like one theory of how a certain hotel got to be named “Adam’s Mark”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/38 "2009-10-30T20:38:14Z")
Few people know this, but Muslims can’t wear muslin. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/39 "2009-10-30T21:04:20Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Few people know this, but Muslims can’t wear muslin. why? classic muslin is pure cotton fabric. it was introduced to europe by arab traders, and was originally made in mousul, hence the name muslin. sorry, early medieval clothing is one of my areas of fascination and research. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744/40 "2009-10-30T21:16:31Z")
Just for clarification: the rules that are being cited, and **cmkeller** ’s insightful comments, apply to Orthodox and most Conservative Jews. Reform Jews tend to be more casual about such rules. So, if you know a Jew with a voluntary tattoo, it’s pretty much a safe conclusion that that person is Reform (or a convert who got tattooed before the conversion.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-cant-get-tattoos-really/456744.md?page=3)