Are tattoos and piercings bad?? <...> Is that going against God's Word though, since I'm marking my body up?
My philosophy is this - if you ask if something is wrong, someone will be willing to agree. This is especially true on the net, where you don't have a personal relationship with a mentor, just opinions from strangers who
may not have your best interests in mind. Instead of bad/good, let's keep in mind some basic principles.
It's simply not true that the body in its original form is perfect and any modifications are necessarily bad. For one, we are born with imperfect bodies and sometimes require modifications to live; e.g. some birth defects require surgery if a child is to live beyond a couple of days. Obviously, ornamental body modifications don't have the same purpose, but we need to get beyond the idea that the body we're given is necessarily pristine in its current state and that any adjustments are bad - I don't think it's realistic...
... or biblical: God commanded a very "interesting" body modification for males, for instance; e.g. Genesis 17:13. Because it was part of a covenant with God, they underwent an
extreme bodily modification. It may seem normal these days because some cultures do it to most of their male children, but it's extreme. I'm
certain that if God had given them the choice of a nice wrist tattoo, they would have jumped at the opportunity. Did God command them to defile their temples? Quite to the contrary, he found glory in this.
Concerning the passage in 1 Corinthians 6, we
must read the context. Going up just one verse, we read:
All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
If this passage is applicable to tattoos, etc., why did Paul say he's talking about sex, apart from
all other sins? In the next chapter, Paul continues talking about sex, marriage, etc. A little later, he even says:
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.
I'm not saying that body mods are good, neutral, or bad, but you've got to be careful. I think what you say, that you'll keep praying, is really the only way to approach it. Otherwise, you'll get strangers like me saying that you should just go ahead and do it.
