Jesus Tattoo

This thanksgiving holiday, I spent the day with my best friend and her family. Her mother was doing some paperwork for her job and showed me this "cool tattoo" that she had found on social media. When I heard about the tattoo, I was initially interested to see what portrayal of Jesus would be shown. I was only slightly surprised to see the typical North American image of Jesus with the crown of thorns on His head and a reflective look on His face. This was no doubt an attempt to draw attention to the crucifixion of Jesus, which is a major belief of the Christian faith.

More than anything, my reaction to this image was positive. I found it interesting that someone would choose such a controversial image for a tattoo, especially in this day and age. Most North Americans shy away from the conversation of religion so that they can avoid stirring up the pot. However, this person felt the need to say something about their faith without using words, and I believe it to have been done tastefully. Earlier that week, I had heard a young woman say that, "everything about you is an evangelism tool," meaning that God made you the way you are so that you could point people to Him. I think a tattoo of Jesus as the suffering Christ is an excellent and creative portrayal of what Jesus' character might be like.

In light of this, I would try to bridge the gap with a non-believer by asking them what they think about the tattoo. I would be curious to hear about how they see Jesus and whether they find this communication of His mission on earth to be effective. Although I don't plan on getting a Jesus tattoo myself, I believe that this image of Jesus would provide an opportunity for a Christian to engage a non-believer in the topic of religion.I also think that it would allow me to better understand the non-believer's perspective of Christianity in today's society, and would be interested to hear his/her response to the other facets of Jesus' character (i.e. Jesus as King, Jesus as God, Jesus as Healer, etc).