To tattoo or not
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord".
MBOMBELA – Seeing that the number of young people who opt to have their skin marked is increasing by the day, Mpumalanga News hit the streets to find out.
• Thobile Ntimane (25) from Matsulu said, “The first time I got a tattoo was the day after my graduation.
I felt really blessed to have achieved my degree without failing. I needed something that would constantly remind me of how blessed I am.
So I went to the tattoo specialists in Gauteng to draw the word ‘Blessed’ on my left arm.
“After saving enough cash, I went back to add ‘Let go and let God'”.
Thobile explained that the tattoo always lifts her spirit when she feels down. When she wants to give up, it reminds her that God is always in control.
She has others on her right arm, inspired by different events in her life. She added that she loved the attention from people who admired them.
• Donald Sheba (25) also from Matsulu, “A tattoo is a symbol to express positive personal qualities,” he said.
He got one because it was one way of extending his personality, as most of his tattoos were influenced by the experiences he had in his life.
He added that he would never remove them even if he had an opportunity to do so.
He further explained that he would encourage his children to have them and even tell them of the pain they are sure to go through when having it done.
• Apostle Moses Ngobeni of Shekinah Glory Christian Worship Centre quoted Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 28,
“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord”.
Ngobeni explained that the Bible does not say a great deal about having them for pleasure, but it emphasises tattoos in remembrance of the dead.
He added that God forbids these kinds of tattoos as they mean one is worshiping the dead.
He discouraged the youth from getting them purely because of their celebrities, without truly knowing the meaning of those tattoos.
Mpumalanga News also learnt that there were government sectors like the SAPS who did not hire people with visible tattoos.
