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Catholic Questions · Week 1

Can Catholics get tattoos?

The short answer, from the Catechism and Scripture. About 3 minutes.

The short answer

Yes. No Church teaching forbids tattoos. But your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so what you put on it should honor God.

The answer in plain words

Five things to know

Each link opens the Vatican's text or the USCCB Bible, so you can read the real words.

  1. Leviticus 19:27–28

    The verse everyone quotes is part of Israel's ancient law.

    Leviticus 19:28 says, “do not tattoo yourselves.” The verse right before it says, “Do not clip your hair at the temples, nor spoil the edges of your beard.” Both were laws God gave ancient Israel. The footnote in the New American Bible says this ban probably refers to an ancient practice: branding slaves with their owner's name, or marking worshipers with the name of a god.

  2. CCC 1972

    Christians are not bound by those ritual laws.

    The Catechism calls the law of Christ “a law of freedom, because it sets us free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law.” The moral law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, still holds for everyone. Tattoos are not part of it, and no Church teaching forbids them.

  3. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

    Your body still matters.

    Saint Paul tells Christians that the body belongs to God and is meant to give him glory. So a tattoo is not just a style choice. It is something you carry on a temple of the Holy Spirit.

  4. CCC 2148 · CCC 2117

    Skip anything that mocks God or sacred things.

    The Catechism calls words of hatred or defiance against God blasphemy, and says this “extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things.” A design that mocks any of them is out. So is one meant as a charm or for magic, since the Catechism says, “Wearing charms is also reprehensible.”

  5. CCC 2288–2289

    Use good sense.

    Health is a gift from God, and we are asked to “take reasonable care” of it. For a tattoo, that means a clean, licensed studio and time to think it over. The Catechism also warns against the “cult of the body,” which treats the body as if it were everything.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.”

The line to remember · 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 · NABRE

What Pope Francis said

“Don't be afraid of tattoos”

In March 2018, at a meeting with young people in Rome, a seminarian asked Pope Francis how a young priest can tell what is good in youth culture and what is false. He used tattoos as his example. The Pope told him not to be afraid of tattoos, and pointed out that Eritreans have tattooed a cross on their foreheads for years.

He added that there can be exaggerations. Then he said a tattoo shows belonging, and suggested starting a conversation by asking the person what they are looking for and what belonging their tattoo expresses.

This was advice to a future priest, not a formal Church ruling.

Sources: the Vatican transcript (Italian, question 4) and an English report by Catholic News Service.