A reader writes:
What about the issue of vanity as well? When you get a tattoo, aren’t you making a statement concerning what the purpose of my body is for or that my body needs to be more beautiful? It would seem to me that we run the risk of speaking an wrongful language about the purpose of the human purpose. Granted it isn’t up there with contraception, but I think that there is a connection.
The same argument would apply to women’s make-up, and while Scripture counsels against excessive preoccupation with beauty, the Church does not hold that there is anything wrong with using make-up or other means to enhance one’s beauty.
Further, not all tattoos are for purposes of making oneself more beautiful or handsome. (Indeed, I wonder how many of them have this as a goal.) Frequently people get them because they want to make a statement about something on which they feel strongly. E.g., if a man has the Virgin of Guadalupe tattooed on his arm, that isn’t to make him more handsome, it’s to make a statement about his devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Other times people get tattoos because they want to create a certain aura about themselves, but the enhancement of beauty is not the goal.
In any event, the practice of tattooing is not ruled out by canon law or by the Catechism. Tattooing may have a somewhat "disreputable" connotation in American culture, but the Church does not prohibit it.
