Tattoos!
“God's name will be written on the foreheads of the people.”

Revelation 22:4b

I don’t like tattoos. I try to be gentle in my assessment of the practice of putting bad doodles permanently on your skin. But, if I ran the world I would make the practice illegal. It seems to me to be a way of memorializing for the rest of your life a passing moment of stupidity. Now that I’ve vented and should feel better for it, I must confess that the fourth verse of Revelation 22 that talks about a tattoo on the forehead of God’s people takes me back.

If I will have a tattoo in heaven, then maybe I had better look at the whole issue even closer. Tattoos remind me of the practice of “branding” cattle to show ownership. The cattle all ran free on the range and were identified by the burned in brand. In heaven I will have God’s name written on my forehead. You would think that in heaven I wouldn’t need something written on my forehead to identify me. But clearly the Bible says I will have God’s name written on my forehead.

Maybe tattoos are not just bad doodles. Maybe they are an attempt to say something about allegiance. The tattoos in heaven will be the name of the one who controls our lives. Perhaps tattoos here reveal the same thing.

Here on earth we all run like cattle on the range. The cattle are not all owned by the same rancher. And we give allegiance here to many gods. The only way you can tell who owns the cattle is by looking at the brand. Then you will know.

In the world of spiritual reality, those who are controlled by Satan are usually quite willing to be identified with the hordes of Hell. The brands are usually easy to see. But what about followers of Jesus, we often refuse to have any kind of tattoo to identify us with the Lord. We want to be free of marks that might show we are not like the world around us.

Does this mean that I am going to run out and have a big cross tattoo put somewhere on my body? Not at all! The mark of a Christian is not what is written on my skin, but rather what is written on my heart. A tattoo on your skin can be hidden easily by simply covering up that part of your body, but a tattoo on your heart is seen by everyone you encounter.

“OK, Lord I give up. Write something today on my heart. Let it be a permanent mark that everyone will see. Oh, and Lord, just one question. Is it going to hurt?”