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In this episode, we talk about ink, why religious prohibit it, why lots allow and even sanity it, and how people are modifying their bodies religiously.

In this episode, we argued that:

• body modification—and tattooing is not the only kind of body modification, but it is what we’re gonna focus on–is obviously tied up with religious systems, and are inherently tied up with how we see, value, and make sense of our own bodies and the bodies of others.

• Whether a religio-cultural system likes or loathes tattoos is secondary to the idea that bodies are a subject of regulation, transformation, and maintenance for communities.
  .

  In this episode, talked about the history of tattooing, focusing on its duration (since the neolithic period!) and scope (everywhere people exist, but perhaps especially in the Pacific Islands and Polynesia!) and its connection to—you guessed it, nerds!—imperialism (turns out that Cap’n Cook didn’t just do dastardly deeds in the South Pacific, he also exposed his sailors to tattooing cultures, which became their own thing later on, even as the missionaries and colonizers he brought tried to stamp it out amongst the native folk).

  We also talked about specific religions and their prohibitions on tattooing, like Abrahamic traditions general sense that the body you are given is sacred, and altering it is an act of hubris. But obviously: #NotAllAbrahamicReligiousPeople, or something. Because even Jews—famously the most anti-tattooing religion, perhaps—have Jewish practices of tattooing!

  And we talked through some Polynesian and Native American forms of tattooing.

  
  

  Primary Sources

  Megan and Ilyse both have tattoos with religious meaning, broadly (like Ilyse’s hamsa and nazar) and specifically (like Megan’s Octavia Butler-handwriting-and-quote, “God is Change”).