The Tattoo Taboo
Why is this worth talking about at all?
When asked about tattooing, most people of Jewish descent will say that a tattooed person cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Which is complete fiction … almost.
The Torah (Old Testament for any non-Jews) mentions tattooing only once, in Vayikra (Leviticus) chapter 19, verse 28. Here’s the Hebrew (read right to left, of course):
וְשֶׂ֣רֶט לָנֶ֗פֶשׁ לֹ֤א תִתְּנוּ֙ בִּבְשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וּכְתֹ֣בֶת קַֽעֲקַ֔ע לֹ֥א תִתְּנ֖וּ בָּכֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהֹוָֽה
In English: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves. I am [God].”
As with everything in the Torah, there is millenia of commentary on the subject. Hezekiah ben Manoah, a 13th century French rabbi, suggested that the word “שרט,” incision, is singular which suggests that each individual mark is a violation.
Rashi, another French rabbi, said the practice of cutting the skin when someone died was something heathens did, which is perhaps the origin of the modern mistaken interpretation, and the justification for some individual Jewish cemetery boards barring tattoed people.
However, Jews have a more complicated history with tattoo than they do with other Biblical prohibitions.
To begin, there are those in academia who believe ancient Jews were, in fact, tattooed, which is why the prohibition exists in the first place.
At the turn of the 20th Century, Jews were early tattoo pioneers. One man in particular, known as Lou “the Jew” Alberts, is credited with defining the character of modern tattoo parlours and culture.
Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz during World War II were tattooed against their will, which both dehumanized the prisoners and broke a Biblical prohibition.
A generation later, the grandchildren of those prisoners had their grandparents’ numbers tattooed on their own arms as a way to honor their suffering and survival.
Now, and perhaps more commonly since Oct. 7, 2023, young Jews have Jewish religious and cultural iconography tattooed on their bodies as a way to express their identity.
This newsletter will examine all of those issues and questions, and more, talking with Jewish tattoo artists and their clients, with academics and anyone else who might have something to say on the subject.