Messages From Hell

From Tattoo History Source Book:

Tattooing has been discouraged or forbidden by most Christian churches throughout history. A passage in Leviticus reads: “Ye shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you.” (19:2 This has generally been interpreted as a prohibition of tattooing, and cited as biblical authority to support the church’s position.

But other historical records and biblical passages seem to indicate that religious tattooing was common among ancient Jews and some Christian sects. As evidence of the antiquity of tattooing among Semites, Scutt and Gotch report that the sun god Baal required his worshippers to mark their hands with “divine tokens in a mystic attempt to acquire strength.” The same authors have discovered what is probably the earliest recorded instance of the sacrilegious use of tattooing: a certain Jehoaikim defied the Almighty by having the Sacred Name tattooed on his penis and then compounded the insult by indiscriminately committing incest with family members.

According to biblical scholar M.W. Thomson, Moses “either instituted such a custom [tattooing] or appropriated one already existing to a religious purpose.” Thomson quotes Exodus 9 and 16: “And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt; and it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes.” Thomson theorizes that Moses borrowed tattooing from the Arabs, who tattooed magical symbols on their hands and foreheads. Moses supposedly adapted this custom to his own purposes, creating patterns “so devised as to commemorate the deliverance of the Children of Israel from bondage.” According to Thomson, the prohibition in Leviticus referred only to heathen tattooing which had to do with idolatry and superstition, and not to the Moses-approved tattoo designs.

Thomson goes on to cite a number of other biblical references to tattooing. In Deuteronomy Moses scolds those who have “the spot which is not the spot of God’s children.” In Revelation there are numerous allusions to religious marks which were probably tattoos. For instance: “And he hath … on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” (19;16). In Isaiah there is an apparent reference to tattooing in the following passage: (xlix. 15 and 16): “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Paul’s statement “I bear on my body the marks of the Lord Jesus (Galatians 6: 17) is thought by many scholars to refer to tattooing. In a commentary on Isaiah written in 528 AD, Procopius of Gaza reported that many Christians were tattooed on the arms with a cross or Christ’s name.

The biblical scholar Franz Joseph Dolger made a diligent search of ancient Christian documents in an effort to discover records of religious tattooing. He reports that in the fourth century AD Saint Basil the Great, one of the most distinguished doctors of the Church, admonished the faithful: “No man shall let his hair grow long or tattoo himself as do the heathen, those apostles of Satan who make themselves despicable by indulging in lewd and lascivious thoughts. Do not associate with those who mark themselves with thorns and needles so that their blood flows to the earth. Guard yourselves against all unchaste persons, so that it cannot be said of you that in your hearts you lie with harlots.” The quotation might be interpreted as a ban on tattooing in general, but Dolger believes that the fact that it was linked to a prohibition of impure thoughts indicates that it referred to the Arab custom of tattooing the name of a lover on the hand.

An edict issued by the Council of Northumberland in 787 makes it clear that the Fathers of the Church distinguished between profane tattoos and Christian tattoos. They wrote: “When an individual undergoes the ordeal of tattooing for the sake of God, he is to be greatly praised. But one who submits himself to be tattooed for superstitious reasons in the manner of the heathens will derive no benefit therefrom.” The heathen tattooing referred to by the Council was the traditional tattooing of the native Britons, which was still practiced at that time.

Dolger found numerous other references to tattooing in ancient texts. Although brief, these sources indicate that among many early Christian sects a tattoo of a cross, a lamb, a fish or Christ’s name was used as a sign of identification and recognition. According to Keimer, medieval crusaders who reached the Holy Land had crosses tattooed on their arms as souvenirs of their travels, and it is likely that this custom continued throughout the Middle Ages. One of the first descriptions of this practice is found in a manuscript written by William Lithgow, who made the pilgrimage in 1612.

He wrote:
“Earley on the morrow there came a fellow to us, one Elias Areacheros, a Christian habitour at Bethlehem, and perveier for the Fiers; who did ingrave on our severall Armes upon Christ’s Sepulchur the name of Jesus, and the Holy Crosse; being our owne option, and desire; here is the Modell thereof. But I decyphered, and subjoyned below mine, the four incrorporate Crowns of King James, with this Inscription, in the lower circle of the Crowne, Vivat Jacobus Rex; returning to the fellow two Piasters for his reward.” (quoted by Scutt and Gotch).

Numerous similar accounts of tattooing in Palestine are to be found in the travel journals of Christian pilgrims, and the practice has continued without interruption into the twentieth century. When John Carswell visited Jerusalem in 1956 he found a professional tattooist, Jacob Razzouk, who was still using tattoo designs carved on woodblocks which had been handed down from father to son in his family since the seventeenth century.

Razzouk allowed Carswell to borrow his blocks and print them on paper. Carswell’s book Coptic Tattoo Designs, printed in a limited edition of 200 copies in 1956, contains reproductions of 184 prints together with descriptions of the traditions and symbolism associated with each design. In this book Carswell has preserved a fascinating record of an art form of great antiquity which is virtually unknown to most westerners.

The following selection is taken from Coptic Tattoo Designs by John Carswell.

In the old City of Jerusalem one afternoon in 1956 I discovered a collection of woodblocks which struck me as unique in character. They were owned by a Coptic tattooer who used them to stamp designs onto pilgrim’s arms as a guide for his needle. With his permission I borrowed the blocks and had them printed on paper; I was so impressed with the charm and variety of the designs that I started to make inquiries into their origins and also the extent and purpose of their present use. The artistic, anthropological, religious and iconographic interest of the designs will be apparent and there are many scholars more competent than I to comment on these special aspects of the collection…

The tattooer, Jacob Razzouk, is the head of a family belonging to the small Coptic community in Jerusalem, where his ancestors settled in the eighteenth century, coming from Egypt. I was first attracted to his shop, a coffin-maker’s, by a sign on the door advertising tattooing; this seemed to me such an odd combination of activities that I questioned him about it. He told me that he was both the proprietor and the tattooer, but that there was no direct association between his two occupations. When I showed an interest in tattooing he told me about his craft and offered to show me his tools and methods; it was then that I first saw the wooden blocks.

The craft has been passed down in the Razzouk family for generations; the majority of his customers are Copts from Egypt who want a permanent souvenir of their visit to the Holy Land. Tattooing is a seasonal trade with a peak period of business at Easter; this is therefore his reason for combining it with another profession. In an average year he tattoos at least two hundred Copts. All Coptic pilgrims are virtually obliged to be tattooed as their compatriots would not consider a pilgrimage valid without this visible sign. As for his other customers, they include pilgrims of most of the Christian denominations. This is confirmed by the presence of Armenian, Syrian, Latin, Abyssinian and Slav designs in the collection; one curiosity is a Hebrew design. The blocks are the most important part of Razzouk’s equipment. They serve a double function: firstly, they provide his customers with a rudimentary catalog from which a design may be chosen, and secondly, provide the means whereby the desired design can be stamped onto the skin. This is accomplished by lightly inking the surface of the block and pressing it firmly on the flesh, leaving the reversed image as a guide for his needle.

Personally, I do not know of another instance of a tattooer having a similar set of blocks. Usually tattooers either copy designs by eye, or the designs are composed and drawn directly onto the skin. The idea of having the design permanently carved on blocks may have been introduced for the sake of speed; obviously it is quicker to stamp the design than to draw it out laboriously and Razzouk is obliged to work under exceptional conditions, as most of his customers come at the same time. I myself have seen more than twenty Copts waiting to be tattooed in his house at Easter, Often whole families are tattooed simultaneously.

The designs are carved on blocks of closely grained olive wood. Varying greatly in size, they range from quarter of an inch to an inch in thickness. Some of the blocks are carved on both faces. A glance at the prints will show great variety of style and execution, indicating they were carved by different hands; Razzouk says by different members of his family. The blocks are carved in the cameo technique, i.e. the printing surface is a relief line standing away from the body of the block. There is no record of what tools were used to cut them, as none of them were cut during Razzouk’s memory; the intricacy and depth of some of the carving suggests that special tools, like gouges, must have been employed as well as a sharp knife. The procedure can be seen in a few places where the blocks were abandoned before being completed. They show that the design was carved first in silhouette, possibly following finely engraved guide lines, and then completed by cutting away the details within the silhouette.

After the design has been transferred to the skin it is pricked into the flesh with a needle dipped in ink. Razzouk’s technique differs from that of his ancestors, as he owns an electric automatic needle sent to him by a brother in America. This instrument has the commercial advantage of tattooing in several different colors. Until he acquired it he used the old method of a set of needles bound in a stick, which was a long and painful process…

Razzouk tattoos men, women and children. The position of the tattoo varies according to the sex of the customer and the design. The cross, for instance, is one of the symbols commonly placed on the inside of the right wrist. The more complicated designs tend to be tattooed on the upper arm. Some female customers prefer designs on the inside of the upper arm, or on the leg just above the knee. The back of the hand is the usual location for small crosses with equal arms. Also, four dots in the shape of a cross are often placed at the base of one or more fingers. His own family are all tattooed with such crosses. Persons who have sprained or injured arms are occasionally tattooed with a continuous band of dots…

There are only two definite dates in the collection of woodblocks. One is the Armenian inscription for the year 1749, and the other is a Resurrection incorporating the date 1912. Some of the blocks are extremely worn and would certainly seem to be of the antiquity claimed for them by Razzouk, who asserts that they have been in his family since the seventeenth century… Apart from stating that the blocks may come from any part of the period within the two dates shown more accurate dating is impossible; nor can a chronological dating of style and development be traced since primitive art of this kind shows no appreciable pattern of development. In Jerusalem the traditional demand for tattooing continues and is in no way diminished. Winifred Smeaton remarks in her study of Arab tattooing in Iraq that urbanization seems to have adversely affected the popularity of tattooing; this is not the case amongst the eastern Christians. I have talked to many educated Armenians and Copts who unanimously agreed that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem should be recorded by a tattoo. I sat recently beside an elegantly dressed young woman in a public taxi in Beirut, who had a freshly executed tattoo on her forearm dated 1958 - one of the designs in the collection… It is a curious fact that Jerusalem contains no masterpieces of Christian art and architecture, indeed little of any distinction at all.

The modern traveler is more likely to be inspired by its associations than its monuments. How many a visitor to the Holy Sepulchure has been disappointed by the chaotic jumble of dimly-lit chapels, lacking in any focal point, and outside, shocked by the gaudy commercialism and religious trumpery that fight for attention at every turn. Yet this is no modern development; Felix Fabri says of his fellow pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchure in the fifteenth century: “There was no lack of vainglory… for some had candles twisted and decorated with gilding and painting, which they carried with ostentation and looked with scorn on those who carried plain candles.”

The same candles are on sale in the little shops around the Church today. These shops are crammed with every conceivable kind of souvenir; traditional olive wood and mother of pearl carvings, medallions of gilded incense, silver crosses, carved bread-pats, handblocked shrouds, rosaries and a plethora of cheap pictures. Entirely devoid of artistic pretensions, in a humble way they are a measure of the faith of pilgrims down the ages. Along with such souvenirs, the tattoo designs illustrate one of the more charming aspects of the piety of generations of pilgrims to Jerusalem.

References

Carswell, John. 1956. “Coptic Tattoo Designs”. Beirut: The American University of Beirut.
Dölger, F.J. 1929.” Die Kreuz-Tätowierung im christlichen Altertum”. Antike und Christentum. 1: 202-211.
Keimer, Ludwig. 1948. “Remarques sur le Tatouage dans l’Egypte Ancienne”. Memoirs de l’Institute d’Egypte. 53: 1-113.
Scutt, R.W.B. and Gotch, C. 1986. “Art, Sex and Symbol”. London: Cornwall Books.
Thomson, M.W. 1859.” The Land and the Book”. London: Nelson.
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