I recently taught on the “fallibility and sufficiency of the body” — basically, a biblical theology of body. The audio of that is available here: https://soundcloud.com/joelpeterjupp/fallibility-sufficiency-of-the-body

A student asked in response what I thought about tattoos. Here was my answer:

Good question.

While I’m not a tattoo expert — I don’t have any myself (haha) — my personal sense is that the meaning of tattoos has changed over time.

According to my view, the Old Testament prohibition was more about signifying identity with a people group. So Israel was prohibited to show that they were set apart from the other nations.

Nowadays, tattoos have meaning, but usually for personal or artistic expression, not communal identity. 

I can image some tattoos could be wrong, but as I read the New Testament, that would be a matter of personal conscience and motive. For example, the “wrongness” could be because of why the person got the tattoo — e.g., “My body isn’t good enough, and I need to impress others.” or “I know I should give money to the poor, but I’d rather ink myself to be cool.”

Personally, I take a cautious approach in two senses: (1) I think less body modification is better than more and (2) I try not to judge others on an issue that is less clear, in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 10:23-33.