Tattoos and the Confession of the Soul

By Michael Davis

What do tattoos have to do with evangelism? How do confessions of the soul come through someone’s ink? Perhaps I can speak to what I have learned about how these things relate by explaining how I got into asking people about their tattoos. Just over a year ago after beginning my first residency year with Evangelize Today (ET) Ministries the globe experienced the beginning of a pandemic and shutdown. All the while one of my mentors who leads ET, Al Dayhoff, was encouraging me to do tattoo interviews. You might be wondering what a tattoo interview is. it really begins by noticing them with a genuine curiosity. Seeing past whether you like them or not, into the world where someone would want to say something to the world so strongly that they write it on themselves permanently. From seeing them it went actually speaking to the person and telling them you are interested in the story behind the tattoo. I would at times tell the person that I am a pastor who is seeking to listen more. As I sat down with people and listened to what was under the ink I saw what Al was explaining to me…that tattoos are often a window into the soul. That the image of God is writing on its wrapper in permanent ink…can we hear it?

What is the image of God?

What is the image of God trying to say? What do I mean by image of God? Genesis 1 says that God created mankind in his own image. If God doesn’t have an image that we can see, then we must reflect his image in other ways. One of those ways has to be the fact that we are relational creatures. We are made for intimate dignified relationships with other human beings and of course, with God Himself. We see that God Himself has perfectly intimate relationships within Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is a dynamic, always other oriented self giving love that is moving towards the other members of the Trinity. Guess what? We were made to participate in it! But intimacy was lost. We tried to do things without God, and found ourselves in shame. We realized we were exposed and we covered ourselves and hid. Shame took primary place over intimacy, but we never lost our longing for intimacy. So what is the image of God trying to say? “I feel shame so I don’t want you to know me…but I really do want someone to know me.” The image of God in us all (whether Christian or non-Christian) is constantly in this dance of “talk to me; don’t talk to me”…”know me; don’t know me”…”pursue me; don’t pursue me.” The image of God is wondering who can be trusted, and therefore, allowed access. It’s that pregnant pause or shift in body language when someone is asked a deeper question that would peel a layer back and expose that longing for intimacy.

I recently had a conversation with a very dear friend of mine who isn’t a Christian. This person was raised in a church, but after progressing into early adulthood, decided to walk away. After having spent some time with this new friend, I decided to ask him what led to his walking away. He begin to talk about an extended family member…but tears quickly came. He trusted and opened up because I had listened to him before. He was now known by me. He shared with me that when he began to wrestle with questions of doubt about Christianity, this particular family member would talk with him about it without condemnation. He described this person as his only lifeline to what faith he had. Sadly this family member passed after about two months. That was when my friend walked away. He felt like he was abandoned by God because his only lifeline was taken from him. Do you hear the rhythm of “talk to me; don’t talk to me”….”ask me; don’t ask me”? Do you hear that this dynamic wasn’t merely with me, but actually with God Himself? My friend, just like all of us, wants to be pursued by God to be known by Him, but he is also angry at God and therefore, at the same time doesn’t want to be known by Him. Can you listen to your own dance that may be similar to my friends? Can you hear it in others? The tattoos are very often signs pointing to these deeper dynamics…but we all have this dynamic at play in us, even if we don’t have ink.

God’s telling engagement with His image bearers

Genesis 3 is where we first see mankind look to God and then look away. We looked at God and questioned his goodness, truthfulness, and love for us. We listened to the lie instead. But God then pursued. He could have entered in with a scolding look or condemning tone, but he did not. He showed back up with a loving question…”where are you?” We didn’t want to listen to Him anymore, and yet He still wanted to listen to us. This is the first step of the gospel into a fallen world. We were hiding with shame and guilt, still longing for intimacy, but also terrified of it. And God gently and graciously asks us where we are. Perhaps a way for us to present the gospel is to ask a person…”where are you?” We can ask this in many ways, but the main way is by listening to them with genuine interest. God knew exactly where Adam and Eve were, and yet he asked. In John 4, Jesus knew everything about the woman at the well, and yet he asked. How much more should we, who do not know, ask and listen. It may be that we hear the deep longings of the soul for dignity and intimacy to be restored. When we hear it the gospel is being presented. Jesus pursues us to know us…when we listen we are presenting Jesus to the other person.

Junk sheds and noisy heads…

My second oldest daughter loves horses. She has a toy horse stable in her room that she plays with. Often times she ends up filling it up with other toys to the point that she can no longer use it as a horse stable. It becomes a junk shed. My loving wife will occasionally go in there and clean it out for her so that she will actually use it again for what she loves, a horse stable. Everyone’s heads are very noisy. It is full of self talk, half truths, fears, anxieties, useless information, social media feeds, etc. We were not created to know what 100 different people think about the restaurant down the street, or what they had for breakfast, or what they think about the current president. So our heads are so full that there isn’t much room for anything else. So when we bring new information to another person, it typically bounces off. It gets ejected as white noise in a world full of white noise. So what is not white noise in this world? Real listening, to hear, to hold, conversation. In a world trending away from face to face interaction, a real conversation is attention grabbing. 

When we sit down with another person and ask them “what is underneath your ink?” Or “what do you believe about God?’ Or “Tell me about your story” we are helping them clean about the horse stable that has become a junk shed. When we draw out the junk we are giving them space to put it out on the table and look at it with you and realize what was actually going on inside of them. Then they can see the reality of their story. Then they have room to receive something. That is how all this got started. As we saw it happening in real time in front of us we also heard people say that they wanted others to know about this. So we tried the first tattoo storytellers night last August. But it started by sitting down one-on-one with people, then getting a few of them around a table together, then around our back patio, and then in an event space at a brewery. 

A guided tour…

What actually happens in these interactions? How do you go about them? I get asked these questions from time to time. On one hand, the answer is that it’s different every time. On the other hand, there are themes. One theme might be best captured by the analogy of a guided tour. If you’ve ever been to Africa or a new place that was wild or very different, where the language is different, the terrain is different, the culture is different, etc., then you probably know that it will do you a lot of good to have a guide. I got to travel to Uganda a few years ago and it was very helpful that we had a local Ugandan pastor who was with us nearly the entire time we were in country. He explained many of the things that we experienced and saw that we otherwise would not have understood. I think listening to someone share about their ink is a way to invite them to be your guide into the foreign land of their soul. Interestingly, as they serve as a guide for us into their story, they almost always discover something new or understand something at a deeper level. 

Michelle and I once interviewed a lady who had a tattoo for her father who had passed. When she came to that tattoo she began to weep, but it wasn’t merely because she missed her father…she realized in the moment that there was unprocessed guilt in the relationship she had with her father. The guide becomes a discoverer in the wild. We present Jesus every time we invite them to take us there. Jesus wants to know us. He asks questions to draw out the hidden guilt, the shame, the hurts, the secret sins…but he doesn’t run away or shame us…he listens to hear, and invites us to relationship with himself. And what’s amazing is that while all of that is happening, he already knows everything about us…and yet he still asks and pursues.

The lost ministry of confession…

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Confession may be one of the lost ministries of the church. I am not talking about a confessional booth with a priest inside a church building. I am talking more about what James is talking about…the “one-another-ness” of confession. This takes place in our homes, work places, at a restaurant, among many other places. Believers are encouraged to practice this with each other “that you may be healed”! Think about it…there is much healing that takes place through confession. The Palmist understood this…”When I kept silent my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long. Day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3-4). There is a soul healing that takes place in confession that we can’t fully explain as much as just knowing it when it happens. Guess what? The non-Christian walks around carrying many of the same things which weigh so heavy. Perhaps one of the first steps into evangelism is hearing the confessions of the “wild.”

I was recently stopped in my tracks by the lyrics of a song that I thought I knew well already. The song is called “The Sound of Silence” written by Paul Simon. Perhaps I was stopped in my tracks because I heard it performed a cover song by a modern rock band on the radio. It sounded a bit different but the lyrics were the same. This is the stanza that grabbed my attention…

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

I heard the voice of the poets of our day saying what I think is going on with something like tattoos. We swim in a world where conversation is trending downward and giving way to statements on social media. Many people do lots of talking, but very little speaking. Talking seems to be more about self. Speaking seems to recognize the other person who is on the other end of the conversation. Hearing without listening seems to get at a similar reality. Perhaps the statement that most got me was “people writing songs that voices never share, and no one dared disturb the silence.” People are writing songs in their heads about the confessions in their hearts, but they have often never shared them. We are trained not to share them by a culture that doesn’t listen to hear. What if the tattoo was “the song that voices never share”? What if the person is confessing their song not in verbal communication but in permanent ink on their skin? We do not like to disturb the silence because we know what sounds might come out. We know what might come out of us. We speculate what might come out of others…but we are reminded by James that healing comes by way of confession. 

When I do a tattoo interview there are times when the person shares something deep, painful, or heavy. At the end I often will ask them if they have shared this with anyone else. Many times the answer is “no one else to that extent.” In that moment I realize I am walking in uncharted territory. I am walking on what they view as “scared ground” and I am always honored that they let me in. Confession is often times one of the first steps towards the gospel. Not only am I in uncharted territory, but many times the other person who is sharing is as well. They often have never had someone ask and listen to hear, and therefore have never really processed out load what is on the inside. These are those transcendent moments when you hear the image of God in the person longing for God. When you are allowed to go there with a non-Christian (or anyone for that matter) a kind of bond is often formed. I feel connected to many in my parish. I love them as much as I love the members of my church.

This counts too!

I and my senior pastor recently sat down with one of the guys who is not only a part of the parish but is now himself caring for others in the parish. We talked about what this tattoo parish group is. He calls it “Tattoo Church” which I love! He loves this group because it reminds him of a 1st century “upper room” style church. He loves that it is simple. And it is not about having to have ink, by the way. My friend says that it’s really about having a story to share. While we were together we talked about the vision that my church has for church planting. I told my friend that our church needs to hear from and learn from the experiences of the parish, so we asked him what he would want to share with the congregation. His answer was “this counts too.” He was referring the the “Tattoo church” or the parish. There is a lot wrapped up in those three words, but I was mainly just moved by hearing him say it. My friend went on to say that a year ago before we met, he hated the church, but now he feels like he’s a part of one. I feel like I am watching a church plant unfold before my eyes. I do not have all of this figured out. I see a parish as a place for evangelism to take place in the context of relationships. In the context of these relationships I am seeing the intersection between listening and proclaiming the gospel. It is clear that this is of the Lord…not me. I am just thankful He is allowing me to be a part of it.