{"id":82,"date":"2011-10-11T02:24:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T02:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onthedoorpostsofmyhouse\/?p=82"},"modified":"2011-10-11T02:24:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T02:24:28","slug":"tattoo-as-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onthedoorpostsofmyhouse\/2011\/10\/tattoo-as-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Tattoo as Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About a month ago, I took a friend to get her first tattoo. At the same time, I got new body piercings put in. We are both spiritual people (though she is undeniably more of a mystic than I am). Her tattoo was both religious in iconography and spiritual in personal meaning, so we knew going in that it was going to be an experience that carried deeply spiritual tones. In this post and the one that follows, both she and I will explain what the experience was for us.<\/p>\n

* * * * * *<\/p>\n

Tattoo as Church<\/p>\n

guest written by Paula Wells Sinozich<\/p>\n

I have spent most of my life horrified at the notion\u00a0that anyone would mark her or his skin permanently by a tattoo.\u00a0I think the remark I made over and\u00a0over, especially in front of my children, was “Why would anyone want to\u00a0DO that?”<\/p>\n

For the life of me, I could not imagine wanting to imprint myself with words or pictures with which I would have to live forever.\u00a0 And yet, I was willing at the tender age of 25 to take marriage vows for life.\u00a0 For that matter, at the age of 10, I was willing (well, if you have a will of your own at 10) to be confirmed as a Roman Catholic.\u00a0Vows are inward, but human vows sadly do not\u00a0have the same permanency in this world as a tattoo.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that a tattoo is much less a big deal to people under say, 40.\u00a0 There are far fewer of my contemporaries that have tattoos.\u00a0 Everywhere I go around the southern city where I currently reside, I see more and more body art, some of it quite elaborate. Even around my divinity school (which is admittedly pretty progressive, but it is still a divinity school), tattoos are pretty plentiful.\u00a0\u00a0 I have been curious as to what a tattoo that\u00a0cascades down the arm of a young woman will look like when she is 65.\u00a0 I have strained to read what special\u00a0 significance certain words or pictures might have to their bearers.\u00a0 I have tried not to stare or ask questions, and then, I think, I’m supposed<\/em> to ask questions.<\/p>\n

There definitely was a light switch moment for me when I decided to get a tattoo.\u00a0 That moment was strangely like the moment that I knew I had to become a minister — it was a tiny little seed that took root and grew into a fabled beanstalk.\u00a0\u00a0The tattoo seed was\u00a0planted, in fact, by a pastor.\u00a0\u00a0He and I\u00a0were at the Wild Goose Festival this past summer, listening to great music and interesting talks about the emergent church, on comparative theology, on spiritual growth, and he posed the question to me about whether I had ever considered getting a tattoo.\u00a0 At the time, I gave a definitively negative answer.\u00a0\u00a0 When he asked me the same question a few months later, I don’t think he remembered that he had asked me before.\u00a0 But this time the answer was different.<\/p>\n

The first time he had asked, I knew my life was changing rapidly and dramatically; the second time, I knew my life was never going to resemble anything it had resembled before.\u00a0 A transformation — a conversion — was in the making. \u00a0I had left my law practice and entered divinity school full time.\u00a0 My firstborn left for college.\u00a0 Many other changes, painful but beautiful, \u00a0were surging in my life.<\/p>\n

I had also \u00a0recently developed a sudden but deep and binding friendship with someone who is a completely different shell than I am, and I am certain that my usual crowd would not understand our relationship at all.\u00a0 She has over 30 tattoos and many piercings, and each one has a story, and I find her more beautiful each moment I know her.\u00a0 And so we went together to the tattoo parlor, and I allowed her to extend to me a radical hospitality to welcome me there.\u00a0 She introduced me to the tattoo artist, who lovingly swabbed me with ointment, carefully chose music that would soothe me, and asked me to bow my head so that he could reach what needed to be reached.\u00a0 My friend took photographs while I suffered the pain that I needed to suffer, and I appear to be in prayer.\u00a0 I appear to be because I was.\u00a0 And during the hour or so with the needle, I confessed some of my fears and longings to her, and she held sacred space for me.\u00a0 When it was done, I accompanied her as she received two surface piercing in her chest, and she allowed me to hold her hand and comfort and encourage her.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, we encountered a few people on the way back to her apartment — people who had also marked themselves and nodded knowingly.\u00a0 I am now in communion with others.<\/p>\n

My friend took me to her home, \u00a0sat me before her and washed my tattoo, and sent me out into the world with my message: this tattoo of an ancient Celtic symbol, the wild goose, which was adopted by Christians as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, on my back and over my heart, permanent and perfect lines, urging me forward to do the things that I need to do, in the service of others and in the service of God.<\/p>\n

This, this is church.\u00a0 This is a Christian church where suffering is recognized for its ability to help us transcend and transform, where communion is with one another as a reflection of\u00a0our covenant with God, where we recognize the beauty in one another and love as unconditionally as broken human beings can.\u00a0 It is prayerful, it is loving, it is self-sacrificing, it is confession and assurance,\u00a0it is holy.\u00a0 Yes, this is church as church should be.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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