Wednesday, September 26th, 2007...11:41 am
What’s a Jew to tattoo?
For many Jews, our parents’ most powerful warning growing up was this:
“If you get a tattoo, you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery.”
This dire warning, which always sounded vaguely apocryphal yet was never dismissed outright, was as “factual” to Jewish children as the requirement to get good grades. Questioning our parents’ logic when it came to Jewish law was tantamount to praying for Jesus to save us.
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A conversation I might have had with my mother could have gone like this:
“Don’t ever get a tattoo.”
“Why not?”
“Because you won’t be able to get buried in a Jewish cemetery.”
“So?”
“Aye, dios mio!”
But despite such near-desperate pleas from our parents to never permanently mar our skin, all three children – led by my younger-yet-more-rebellious-sister, eventually got tattoos.
I had always wanted a tattoo. I found them meaningful and aesthetically impressive as a child. And when I graduated from college, as a present to myself, I went to a tattoo shop on Ventura Blvd., picked out an arm-band I had liked, and got my flesh stabbed repeatedly by dozens of ink-filled needles for two hours.
I kept the tattoo a secret from my parents, showing only my friends and siblings.
One day, however, while relaxing on the couch at home, my arm sleeve was pulled up inadvertently and my mom spotted a dark stain gripping my bicep.
“Que es eso?” she asked.
“Nada,” I replied, fixing my sleeve.
But she knew. She turned her head, made a stoic face, and didn’t talk to me the rest of the afternoon.
I eventually learned that though the adage that tattooed Jews can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery was a highly perpetuated myth, it did violate the Torah – specifically, Leviticus 19:28:
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Of course, Leviticus also proclaims I shouldn’t turn my daughter into a whore, go to a psychic, or shave my beard, so reading the Bible takes several grains of salt, so to speak.
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I still find tattoos fascinating and have been considering a second one for years. They make women infinitely more attractive (look at my new favorite photographer Cindy Frey, photographed above) and the idea of regretting mine has never crossed my mind, even 9 years later.
One of the most common arguments I still hear from the anti-tattoo lobby was, “What are you going to do when you’re old and have a tattoo on your flabby arm?”
I tell them, “If I have a flabby arm when I’m old, a tattoo will be the least of my problems.”
Besides, I could have inked any of .
19 Comments
September 26th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Of course she has a little dreidel. The question is, of course, “But can I play with it?”
And given the location of the ink, the answer is unquestionably “yes.”
Even for a goy like yourself.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:55 am
There’s actually a big underground movement of tattoo-ed Jews. The overarching theme of these tattoos is judaica. There’s even a documentary - http://www.tattoojewmovie.com/ and a great article in skin and ink magazine on the subject, although I can’t find the article link.
You also might want to consider, one commandment is to beautiful mitzvot, and if you get a tattoo, you are beautifying G-d’s work, no? Additionally… how many orthodox women have their ears pierced? Same thing, if you ask me. Except in theory piercings “heal” and tattoos “don’t”.
The argument I gave my piercing in college was as follows: If G-d didn’t want you to get cut, you should all ask for your foreskins back.
The tattoo I want is a Hamsa w/ my favorite hebrew proverb in it. One day I’ll get around to it.
You are correct on all these points. I learned a lot about the history of Jews and tattoos the last couple of days while researching this blog post.
Yes, sometimes I do research.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Is your arm band a tribal arm band? Cause if it is that totally deserves some ball busting.
Yeah. Jewish tribal.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
“gripping your bicep?” you wanted to make sure there was something to always have a ticket to the gun show, huh?
You know me so well…
September 26th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
My dad (who forbade me to get one when I told him I was getting one) still looks the other way when he happens to see my tattoo. I’m hoping it’s an aesthetic rather than a religious aversion.
This post was as entertaining as it was informative, arjew.
I specialize in infotainment. Or something.
My parents still pretend they don’t notice it when they see it. Not once have they unsolicitedly asked me about it.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Why don’t you kill two birds with one stone (wow, that sounds vaguely biblical). Don’t worry about the flab–get some ab lines tatoo’ed on your stomach (fatty!). That way, you’ll never have to do a situp again, and chicks will dig you because they like guys with washboard stomachs.
Either that or a tattoo that says in gothic script “if you are reading this, it’s because you want to touch my schlong…mazeltoff!”
That’s definitely an option down the line, right on par with chicks getting lipstick tattooed on their lips. Ugh.
It’s mazel tov, HIN, come on.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Arjewtattoono,
A large issue with the Jewish tattoo is the Holocaust. Two ideas arose post-1945.
1) Don’t get tattoos because then you are doing to your body what the Nazis did to other Jews.
2) A more lenient perspective on tattoos arose because millions of Jews had been permanently marked, and those that survived could not be denied burial in their own cemeteries.
On a side note, piercings are viewed in the same way by those that are anti-Jewish tattoo. The “healing” of a piercing has nothing to do with it. It is the act of defacing one’s body with the piercing itself that poses the main issue.
A new thinking that goes beyond a custom born more than 60 years ago is that tattooing oneself is NOT the same as what the Nazis did to us. That doesn’t make the guilt we feel any less powerful, but it does cause a more liberal viewpoint to be considered.
This could be argued ad nauseum.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Now you’re all about chicks with serious tatts??? WTF? I’d like to point out that Kat Von D started it all… don’t hate
Believe me, she’s the only reason I still rent Miami Ink on Netflix.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
One of mine took almost 5 hours. That was like 6 years ago so, yeah…I’m ready for more. So long as it’s covered by a button down shirt and my clients don’t see it, it’s all good.
I’ve seen it; THAT took five hours? Man, that must have been tough.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Wow, guess I should have been born a Jew then. I hate tattoos and try not to date girls who have them (though this is getting harder). Of course, it’s not for religious reasons - purely aesthetic. I’m also not a fan of warts and large moles.
I remember you blogging about that not too long ago, right? Let me see if I can find that post.
I can’t find it, you don’t have a search capability on your old blog. Find it for me and post it, it was a good blog post, though I disagreed with it.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
“Tramp stamp.” Once I heard those words, I have never look at a lower back tattoo on a woman without thinking them.
Tramp stamp may be accurate, but it’s still hot.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
If you are a tramp, believe me, no one needs to see your tattoo as proof of such. EVERYBODY knows.
At least you don’t have Tweety Bird on your posterior. Wait. You don’t, right?
Thank Jehovah for laser removal services.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
In Germany, the tattoo women get on the small of their backs is called “Ass Antlers.”
That’s fucking rich.
Is that thing around your arm jewish now? Funny, I thought it looked dutch irish.
Its’ starting to resemble a pale Swedish scarf.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
My family is the same — all three kids are tattooed. And pierced.
My father was upset when my sister and I got our ears pierced as little girls. He and my mother got more and more upset with every subsequent piercing. The pinnacle was when my sister pierced her tongue. My mother tried the b.s. about the jewish cemetery, and my sister — also the first to be tattooed — said something along the lines of, “who said I wanted to be buried in one of those boring places?”
Anyway, I did research, and it’s bunk. (See http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/275/Q4/)
My family never cared about piercings. My sister wanted to get pierced when she was a little girl but had to wait until she was a pre-teen. I remember a lot of female friends and family getting pierced when they were babies.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
My bf has a lot of tattoos and it serves to intimidate people, which comes in very handy when driving on the LA freeways. While I’m not crazy about the designs he chose, they are a part of him and I can be with it.
Oh, and Chris Nunez from “Miami Ink” is #1 on my celebrity boyfriend list. I see him and get all giggly and stupid.
Chris Nunez? Him? Really? Okay…
September 26th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Was it this one?
http://rockcreekrambler.squarespace.com/news/2006/9/20/tattoo-ban-lifted.html
Maybe. Blogging has messed up my attention span.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David had to dig his mother up out of the “Bad Jew” section of the cemetary due to her illicit tattoo. Do you mean that this never really happens and that nobody will ever have to dig up your body to relocate you to a spiritually more dignified grave? OMG!
I used to tell my mom, if you care that much about my tattoo, I’ll just have them hack my arm off when I die and then I can be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Cindy Frey is your new favorite photographer because she has a “vegan” tattoo?
I’m from Argentina. We don’t believe in veganism.
October 4th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Not long ago, I called my mother in Jersey and said “We’re back from Mexico! We had a great time!! We got drunk and got tattoos!” There was a long pause after which my yiddisha mama said “So, now my daughter has a tattoo.” It was priceless. But, alas, I’m not fond of needles and I’ve seen too many ugly/botched tattoos to commit. This was just a temp. I loved the look, though.
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