Getting a tattoo is not a sin, says priest of the Catholic Church

Father Omar Sánchez Portillo, director of the Association of the Beatitudes and known in Peru for his vast solidarity work, answers the question about whether it is a sin to get a tattoo, within the framework of International Tattoo Day, which is celebrated on the 17th. of July.

“I don’t think it’s wrong to get a tattoo. I’m not going to say it’s okay either; It’s just not bad. It’s not a sin. Nowhere does the Church teaches that tattooing be a sin“, responds the priest in an interview he gave to ACI Prensa in July 2023.

After remembering that in the Bible, specifically in the book of Isaiah 49:15-16, it is stated “I have you tattooed in the palms of my hands”, in reference to God, the director of Cáritas Lurín reiterates that “tattoos They are not a sin, just as women’s earrings are not a sin.”

17 tattoos

When asked if tattoos can be some kind of impediment or conditioning to living the Christian life, the priest is blunt: “No way! “If not, I wouldn’t be able to live the Christian faith, since I have 17 tattoos.”

“It is true that I regret having had some done, because I had them done when I was 17 or 20 years old, with the name of some person or anything else that has nothing to do with faith.”

“I regret those. Now I wouldn’t do them, none really. But not, having tattoos is not an impediment to living the faith”, he highlights.

“No one could, no priest, no nun, no one in a Catholic community that knows the Church, that knows the faith, could separate you for that reason,” he adds.

Regarding the custom of tattooing that Coptic Christians in Egypt or Eritreans have, Father Sánchez comments that “it seems beautiful that someone gets a tattoo to remind the entire world that they are Christians, despite being in a place where many Sometimes they are persecuted. So it even has a martyrdom value.”

3 recommendations before getting a tattoo

The priest explains to ACI Prensa that when a young man seeks him out and tells him that he wants to get a tattoo, he gives him some recommendations.

“First of all, that do not tattoo things that go against faithsuch as obscenities or incorrect phrases, since there is a custom of tattooing images that represent things contrary to faith or other religions or other beliefs, other ideas, even satanic or diabolical themes.

A second recommendation is that “think well and put powerful phrases or images for them that mean something to fight for in life or remind them of something important in their life.”

The third recommendation that the priest offers is that those who are going to have them done “what consult with your parentseven if they are of legal age, because parents are good advisors, although sometimes we do not listen to them.”

A pending task of the Church

In the opinion of the Peruvian priest, “what the Church has to do, beyond tattoos, is learn to dialogue with the world, which does not mean ‘conditioning itself to the world’. The Church has a serious communication problem: It is not reaching young people, it is not reaching the people of this century.”

Father Sánchez recalls that “Pope Saint John XXIII said that the Church should be ‘a daughter of its time’, and it is not. And so It does not mean, I repeat, adapting to the worldthat does not mean modernizing the Church in the wrong sense of the word.”

“Being a daughter of your time,” she continues, “means having the ability to sit at a table to dialogue with someone who thinks differently than you, and being so prepared and so firm in faith that you can dialogue with that person, debate and give reasons for your faithbeyond the topic: tattoos, gender, transsexuals, politics.”

Finally, the priest emphasizes that “at any level the Church should have the capacity for dialogue, which is not accepting everything that another says, but listening and learning what the other says to also reaffirm my faith and my beliefs.”

Originally published July 17, 2023. It has been updated for republication.