Question asked by Wonderer
Dear Pastors, i would like to ask regarding tattoo on our body? in many culture tattoo is consider a taboo because it is related to gangsterism, and some said it destroy the luck of the person aka Poh Siong (scarring the physical body). But in Theravadan especially in Thailand, many monk have the holy sanskrit and even stupa like tattoo on their body, and even some monk do it for the practitioner for enhancing good luck. My question is, does Buddhism allow tattoo on ones body, if it does, what are the regions of the body that we should avoid? and does it really affect the so called Feng Shui and luck of the person?? Im just curious because Theravadan tradition have tattoo, yet in mahayana, and Vajrayana i seldom see this. Your kind explanation will greatly appreciated.
Hi wonderer,
Tattoos are just symbols people put on their body for whatever reasons.It can be skin art , expression of ones courage to endure pain,an object of fetish, or used as a covert form of identification known only to it members.Nowadays its for cosmetic reasons.
Whether a tattoo is on the body of a monk, a scientist or whoever , it is still a tattoo.It does not automatically make one a gangster or a good person.Neither do they have such power.If monks hv obscure tattoos it could be that before they go on the spiritual way they were gangsters or had it done for any of the reasons mentioned above. You know how difficult it is to remove them.
If they tattoo holy verses or images , its for convenient reminder of their practice , similar to us wearing buddha pendants.
If there are more theravadan monks with tattoos it is likely because thai culture and its people love tattoos more than the chinese mahayanists. One thing for sure,it has nothing to do with enlightenment!