What about Decorative Tattoos?: The Human Body in Heaven (original) (raw)
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Journal for The Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2016
IntroductionAlong history, a lot of statements for and against tattoos were made, but the practice of tatooeing managed to survive since ancient times. About 12000 years B.C., the ones who had wounds on their bodies tried to heal them by rubbing ashes. After the wounds healed, in their place remained black marks which had the appearance of drawings. Among the oldest tattoos that were kept, there is a mummy over 5200 years old, proving one more time that tattoos were the most ancient art form. There is little knowledge about the identity of the first people tattooed on this planet and this issue is still debated. The last discoveries make reference to the Ancient Egypt and to the Eskimo people.Over time, tattoos had different purposes such as right of free way, marks of a social rank, symbols of spiritual and religious devotion, decorations for braveness, sexual and fertility signs, proof of love, punishments, but they also worked as charms for protection and for the identification o...
2013 The Biblical Prohibition against Tattooing
2013
Lev 19:28 prohibits tattooing, but no reason for the prohibition is given. Since it appears in a context of pagan mourning practices (Lev 19:27,28) it is assumed that the reason for the prohibition lay in its association with such mourning practices. In this paper we explore the broader context of the law in biblical times, and how it was understood in subsequent rabbinic times. We propose that in the biblical period the prohibition was associated with the marking of slaves, and that in the subsequent rabbinic period it was associated with paganism.
Architectural renovations of body-as-temple
[Available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20502877.2016.1194657 ] This paper addresses the Christian religious tradition of understanding the human body as the 'temple of the Holy Spirit' within the context of body modification in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Drawing on ethnographic research in Jerusalem and Kansas City, interviews with artists and Orthodox Christians, and theological discourses on the body and art, this paper seeks to understand how the body is treated by Orthodox Christians and evaluates the ethical commitments and contestations around the human body and religious practice. The paper focuses specifically on tattooing practices, which, though typically prohibited in conservative forms of Christianity, are nonetheless practiced as a means of devotion in specific Eastern Orthodox Christian settings. These modifications to the body are taken in dialogue with ritual and practical concerns exhibited in Eastern Orthodox burial practice. The paper argues that while there are commonalities across Eastern Orthodox practice, the ethical implications of specific actions are highly contextualised and must be interpreted within local regimes of aesthetic behaviour.
Devotional Tattooes in Early Modern Italy = Tatuajes devocionales en la Italia de la Edad Moderna
Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte
This essay seeks to analyze the production and dissemination of devotional tattoos in Early Modern times, focusing on the Italian case. It explores the details of their functions and meanings, and their intellectual reception. Nineteenth century theories stated that tattoos appeared in Europe only after the travels of Cook and Bouganville to savage Polynesia. There are many reasons to state that tattoos never disappeared in Italy though. In the Roman Empire tattoo was considered «an indelible mark of infamy», while «tattooing of the whole body», was known as the «barbarian» custom. Between the fourth and the fifth century, the world of Christianity witnessed a progressive subversion of meanings originally approved for that practice of tattoo, by externalizing the signs of pain, transforming the figure of infamy in the patent expression of faith. Despite ambiguous attitude of Catholic authorities towards tattooing, this practice was a public ritual and this publicity was continually ...
In Search of a Divine Face Physiognomy and the Representation of Sanctity in Christian Art
Michele Bacci and Vladimir Ivanovici, eds., From Living to Visual Images. Paradigms of Corporeal Iconicity in Late Antiquity (RIHA Journal 0222-0229), 2019
The article aspires to show how physiognomy was used in late antique art in order to give substance to the theophanic dimension of a person, especially of a saint. Drawing on monumental art, sculpture, daily life objects and catacomb paintings or mosaics, it is possible to discern that the physiognomic features were used as iconographical attributes, which were adjusted depending on the context and of the degree of holiness of the person depicted (saints, deceased, patrons). Therefore, the article allows to follow the transition from portrait to 'icon' characterizing the late antique period.