Piercing can lead to harmfull effects if done incorectly. Tattoos can also do this if infected or done wrong. Most places I've seen that perform tattoos I would not set foot in. Some malls offer piercing, but I'd question if they have the ablity to treat a harmfull infection if one devolped. Do I really nead to get one? What benifit does it have for me?
The answer is really - none. Piercings have no medical or health benifits, nor do tatoos.
Now, if you have a medical condtion, say - you are alergic to something - I would have no issue with you getting a medical tatoo, they are more of a sure way for EMT's to know what not to give you. If your diabetic and fear losing your id-tag, a tatoo might be a soultion, however- for the diabetic, getting a tatoo should be done via a doctor and specalist who know what they are doing, to avoid complatactions.
Now, none of this has anything to do with scritpure. I can not make a case for or agenst this myself, from scripture, but I trust others have. The only referance I know of would be:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body,"
I'm not sure if I myself follow this ideal or not. I do try to eat right, but I do not currently have a normal exersise retune that I should be following. However, idealy - I should- this is an "ought". If I treat my body well, it will last longer. What of the spirt however? If I'm not treating my temple well, perhaps the spirt too, is suffering, so I "ought" to do better in my own treatment of my body. That meens eating right, exersising, not putting things in my body that will harm it. I should do this. I might fail in some regard, and seeing that failing I might want and desire to inprove.
Just because someone ELSE is not doing all they can to treat there body as a temple does not meen you should not do all you can to hold up this ideal.
Thus, if you feel that putting a pircing into you would be not treating your body well, dont do it - same for tatoo. I'd also use the above idea that you have no benifit from doing it, its vanity. Its just to make yourself look a difernt way then you are now. If you can provde a health reasion for doing it (medical tatoo, medical piercing of some sort) then that part of the debate would go away. The second part is more about the spirtual side of things, and harder to nail down.
Both these ideas, the phyiscal being of no benifit and the spirtal pontenaly being hurt by it, lead my conclusion to be that you should not get a tatoo or piercing unless you can refute prevous spriptural augments that others have made, and give good mediacal and health reasions FOR getting one.
Unless and untill you can do this, you should not get a tatoo or picering.
If you allready HAVE one - that is a seprate issue, the dammage is done, your forgiven. You do not have to defend it. No one is perfect. You made an error, its forgiven and forgoten.
This issue is about "getting" not "having"
