Tattoos and piercings

There's this meme going around lately:

"the nicest people I ever met were covered in tattoos and piercings. the most judgmental are the people who go to church every Sunday."

I have no tattoos and go to church every Sunday, and I think I actually am quite good about not judging and being kind, but it's not always that way, and as two things that seemingly don't go together, perhaps that is worth exploring.

In our church, we are specifically asked not to get tattoos or piercings, beyond the single piercing of ears for girls. President Hinckley gave three talks pretty close together on that topic, and I know there were people who had a hard time with it. It was always something I sort of assumed before, but I think it had become less of an assumption, where people were doing it and not feeling particularly rebellious.

I had some thoughts at the time on why it would be a point, and it's not that they are invalid now, but something else that has come to me more recently is that when we push the boundaries, it pushes them out for everybody else.

We are the squares. There is nothing wrong with that. We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't do drugs. (Actually, that kind of makes us straight edge, but without the tattoos.) There are a lot of things that we don't do, and we can be perfectly happy not doing them, especially if we focus more on the positive things that we do. I do not regret any of that.

Still, we are the squares, and to a large extent we are the institution, and "the man". Ways in which we are not part of the machine are important, but may not be immediately visible to some. If we, as the squares, begin appropriating the body art of the rebels, they have to go out further. Mormon guys have pierced ears, rebels need to put spacers in their ear lobes. We get tattoos, they need to get sleeves. We get sleeves, they need to get face tattoos and horns implanted in the forehead.

That probably sounds pretty stupid, but there are a few points to be made here. One is that it is completely acceptable that your compliance at times may be more intended for the blessing of someone else than of yourself. That doesn't mean that you won't get any benefits from it, but it is reasonable for us to do things for others. We should.

Also, I am not saying that the only reason for tattoos and piercings is rebellion, but some of the other purposes that they feel should maybe be things that we don't need.

For example, I remember one person talking about his tattoos being a way of remembering some pictures and images, which is hard. My first thought was that no, it's really easy. We have pictures and photo albums and memories. However, on a deeper level, I think the real issue was a feeling of impermanence, and a desire to hold on, especially to loved ones. I know of many tattoos that are in memory of someone who has died.

With our knowledge of the Resurrection, and eternal families, it's likely that we are not going to feel that same ache. It still hurts when we lose people, but we know it's temporary, and that helps. That's something we can be grateful for.

We know that our body is eternal. It will be changed and perfected, but that is something that is amazing to think about, and we can be grateful for that knowledge.

We understand that we are children of God and brothers and sisters, and I think that can give us a better understanding of what we would need to do to stand out, or why we would want to. That is something to be grateful for.

It's easy to judge, and when we do that as church-goers we are fulfilling one stereotype, and we are in the wrong. When we see and love and are willing to listen and understand, and then love some more, that's what we are supposed to do, and whom we are supposed to be. And while we will care about what we will do to our bodies, we will not get hung up on what other people have done to theirs.