Tattoos Essay Research Paper Tattooing has been — страница 2

with limited success. Pilgrims to Jerusalem up until modern times marked themselves with Christian symbols to commemorate their journey, the three researchers report. The surge toward tattooing among evangelical youth is seen as part of a larger movement of growing evangelical churches to welcome youth through providing cultural settings they are comfortable with, from adding rock-and-roll musical styles in worship to relaxing dress codes. Instead of looking to religious representations displayed on the stained glass windows of the local church, members of this new generation of evangelicals find meaning in inscribing images on their own “private temple of the Holy Spirit,” Jensen, Flory and Miller state. And: “As a symbol of identity and individuality, an extreme

expression of an extreme faith, religious tattooing among young evangelical Christians embodies–literally-their beliefs in a new and radical way.” Jensen noted that when she would ask evangelical youth why they were getting tattooed, “A lot of them were like, ‘I have my faith and this is a very strong expression of my faith, a permanent commitment. ” A doctoral student at Southern California, Jensen is not only a tattoo researcher but also a devotee. She has religious tattoos on various parts of her body. Her upper back bears a sacred heart flanked by banners reading “grace” and “mercy.” On her hip is a large angel, and her lower back is covered with a Jerusalem cross surrounded by the words “approved unto God.” An ankle is tattooed with a symbol of the

Trinity. “For me, it is very much a public symbol of my beliefs,” said Jensen, 24. “For me, it is a form of expression.” Others remember a deceased loved one with an angel tattoo. There may not be the same intense burst of romantic intoxication that leads young men to permanently inscribe the name of their current paramour on their bodies. But advocates of religious tattoos say the love between God and human beings may be the one kind that endures long enough to heed the warning of tattooists everywhere to young lovers: “Love lasts forever, but a tattoo lasts six months longer.”