Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.
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Please note that links may expire. IAM members, please help out by submitting stories!
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Please note that links may expire. IAM members, please help out by submitting stories!
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“See, I have engraved You on the palms of my hands”
– Isaiah 49:16
“One shall say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ and another shall use the name of Jacob, and another shall mark his arm ‘of the Lord’ and adopt the name of Israel.”
– Isaiah 44:5
“I decked you out in finery… I put a ring in your nose, and earrings in your ears…”
– Ezekiel 16:11
See also Exodus 35:22, Numbers 31:50, Judges 8:24, Isaiah 3:21
I fell in love with the art of the tattoo in my early twenties. The choice that I was able to consciously make to beautify my own body was exhilarating. Choosing the placement, selecting the artist and design took research and thought. Seeing the colors and designs come alive on my flesh is intoxicating.
But I am a Jew. How does body modification fit into my life?
The answer is: Beautifully.
Judaism has a long history of distaste for tattoos and piercings. It is my understanding that this stems from the Jewish concept that we are created b’tzelem Elokim (in the image of God) and that our bodies are to be viewed as a precious gift on loan from God, entrusted into our care, but not our personal property to do with as we choose. This distaste grew stronger with the Holocaust and the tattooing that was forced upon the Jews in the prison camps.
Let’s discuss a common misconception:
Can you be buried in a Jewish cemetery and participate in Jewish ritual if you are tattooed or pierced?
It is not prohibited to bury someone who has tattoos or body piercings in a Jewish cemetery. Although the Torah is interpreted by some to prohibit making a permanent tattoo on one’s body, those who violate this prohibition may still be buried in a Jewish cemetery and participate fully in all synagogue ritual.
I asked IAM member RachelG about her experiences with this and she replied with a personal story regarding being buried in a Jewish cemetery with body modifications:
“After an unfortunate tragedy where a close modified friend of mine committed suicide, his family was allowed to bury him in an orthodox Jewish cemetery. He was practically fully suited in tattoos and wore three earrings in each earlobe. At the funeral service I spoke at length with the orthodox rabbi who was performing the service about Jews and body modification. He told me that these misconceptions were not only outdated, but any Jew who believed in them was not following the ways of God. Jews are a very accepting and understanding people. Who are we to judge one for intentionally changing one’s body to fulfill their own desires?”
Deliberate, permanent disfigurement of the body would be prohibited. But such practices as ear piercing and cosmetic surgery (such as elective rhinoplasty) are not prohibited. The purpose of cosmetic surgery is to make the body more beautiful, not to disfigure it. (from torah.org)
Being modified does not prohibit you from participating in Jewish ritual. The fact that someone may have violated the laws of kashrut at some point in his or her life or violated the laws of Shabbat would not merit such sanctions. The widely believed prohibition against tattooing is certainly no worse.
What puzzles and disturbs me is the quote from a rabbi stating that such practices as ear piercing and plastic surgery(1) are not prohibited because they are meant to beautify and not to disfigure. Who is to say that the purpose of my body modifications are not to make the body more beautiful? Is this for a rabbi to decide? I believe that the decision of what makes my body more beautiful is my own. Why is plastic surgery regarded as acceptable and other forms of body modification are not? What about circumcision which is a permanent modification? Who makes those decisions?
Circumcision is also becoming a challenged ritual within Judaism as more and more Jews regard this practice as a social choice. This is a major body modification and disfigurement to a small child that is not given the choice to modify. It is also common practice among non-Jews to circumcise a male newborn penis, and this practice is not specifically Jewish, though it is common practice among Jews specifically. For more information on the complex issue regarding facts and myths of Jewish ritual circumcision, I invite you to visit jewishcircumcision.org. There are many modern changing views concerning the modification of infants without their consent.
For many people, conscious modification has become a way for them to take ownership of the beauty of their own bodies. For a very long time I felt uncomfortable in my own body. I was too fat, too short, my breasts were droopy — I could come up with a list a mile long. I discovered through modification that I loved my own body more when I got to choose what was happening to it. I would not knowingly disfigure my body. I intend to beautify it at my discretion. I am not the only one and I am far from the only modified Jew. By choosing to tattoo my body, I also feel that I am reclaiming this ritual for beauty rather than the hate and disrespect that was the intent of the Nazis forcibly tattooing the Jews during the holocaust.
My Judaism and my body modification go hand in hand for me. They are both part of who I am and how I represent myself. I am a tattooed Jew. I am proud of both of these facets of my life. I am not ashamed to go to Shul and I am not afraid of the questions. What I dislike is the assumption that I am not as good a Jew because of my modifications. I completely disagree. What I dislike is the prejudice my own Jewish people bestow upon me, and others, for choosing to reclaim the ancient art of body modification. This in itself does not convey the Judaism of acceptance that has always been expressed to me in Shul. I believe this inter-judaic prejudice stems from a sociological prejudice thinly veiled by a misunderstood religious excuse.
How did my family react?
My family ignores it. Don’t ask, don’t tell — sound familiar? — but still love and respect me as who I am. My family’s beliefs are those of conservative Jews and I respect them for that. However, I follow more of a Reconstructionist view. Reconstructionists define Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people and most Jewish people, including Reconstructionists, no longer accept its binding authority. While Reconstructionists are lovers of tradition and support community celebration of the Jewish sacred year and life-cycle events, we also believe that the face of the Jewish community is changing and that individuals have the right to adapt Jewish tradition to new circumstances. That doesn’t make us any less Jewish than those who live by Conservative or Orthodox law (although there would be plenty of argument within Judaism about this).
I think that the belief that body modification is prohibited by the Torah is antiquated, just as other Biblical laws are (and have thus been adjusted to fit modern times). Judaism is evolving in some sects; no longer do we have to hide what may be seen as “against the Torah” to practice our faith. It is quite a relief to do so. If you choose to practice your faith, there are many ways to do so. When you are dealing with Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements, we will not agree on each others interpretation of the Torah.
Body Modification is just as much a part of my life as my faith in Judaism. I believe that my modifications beautify my body and bring joy to my life. They do not take away from my faith in God. My personal practice allows me to be who I am, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Liz Polay-Wettengel
1 Editor’s note: It should be added that rhinoplasty has been historically a “Jewish” procedure with the goal of masking — publicly destroying — the Jewish identity in the face of bigotry. One could make the argument that tattoos that uplift the Jewish identity are a far better way to serve God than rhinoplasty ever could be.
Liz Polay-Wettengel (iam:TattooedRedhead) is an executive general manager in Boston Massachusetts where she lives with her husband and two cats. She has a professional background in the music business and writes for several online blogs. Liz has been an active member of the IAM BME community since 2000 and currently runs the membership sponsorship forum and the Jew Crew community forum.
Online presentation copyright © 2004 Shannon Larratt, Liz Polay-Wettengel, and BMEzine.com. Requests to republish must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published online August 19th, 2004 by BMEZINE.COM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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“…for the mind is verily restless, O Krishna! It is impetuous, strong and difficult to bend; I deem it as hard to curb as the wind.”
“Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by indifference.”
– Arjuna, from the Bhagavad-Gita
However you look at it, pushing yourself physically is hard work. As human beings, we’d much rather be doing something less stressful and less physically involved. Whether it be body piercing, tattoos, weight lifting or running a marathon, we always approach such activities with trepidation. After all, wouldn’t you rather be at home, reading a book? Or watching a movie? Or drinking with your friends?
I have to admit that I have days where the last thing I want to do is go to the gym, where I destroy my muscle fibers for an hour, and then run my ass off for another 30 minutes. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but “off-days” aren’t uncommon. So I wonder what keeps me going. Why I’m even bothering to sweat buckets under hundreds of pounds of weight every day. Maybe you’ve made an appointment to get your first cartilage piercing, and even though you’ve heard disaster stories, you still get to the shop on time and go through with it. What makes us conquer these fears?
Of course, there is no easy answer. While we’ve all overcome some of our fears regarding activities like piercing, tattooing and scarification, this is where bodybuilding and heavy physical exercise differs greatly. For the most part, the formerly-mentioned activities are isolated incidents, something that we do once (or maybe twice), and thoughts of the eventual outcome gets us through the process. In this case, the few moments of pain (and weeks of aftercare) are worth it, because you’re instantly gratified with a shiny new piece of jewelry, or new colours under your skin. While tattoos can take weeks to heal, they are basically very easy to care for and don’t require much effort on a daily basis — you don’t really need to think about it, other than to keep it clean. Once the piece is finished, you can forget about it.
Bodybuilding, on the other hand, has an influence on your life unlike any other activity I can think of. Assuming you are following a basic four-day (weekly) routine, this means that you’ll be spending about 4 to 8 hours in the gym every week. No, it’s not a lot of time, but realize that it’s getting significantly more time dedicated to it than any other body modification activity I can think of. And all of that work in the gym is for naught if you’re not eating well and getting plenty of rest, both of which can consume your life. Ask anybody who’s started a fitness plan recently, and they’ll tell you that it’s all they can think about — everything you do outside of the gym will affect your performance once inside it. Want to go out drinking four nights a week like you did back in college? Forget about it. No more fast food. No more late nights. You’ll always need access to good-quality food and plenty of water. This is hard work.
Who has put more effort into their body modifications?
Left: Heather Darling with Gregg Valentino (photo: bigheatherd.com), Right: BME’s Shannon Larratt, 1995.
So, again, why do I do it? Why does anybody put their body through something traumatic? Is it for the results? Or is it the journey, rather than the destination?
As a professional body piercer, I’ve heard many of my peers talk about the ritual that surrounds such activities as piercing, scarification and body suspension (though interestingly enough, never about tattooing). While I’m still formulating my own ideas about how my job is considered a ritual act, I can’t deny that ritual does play a part in the piercing process. While many of my clients just want their piercing to be over with as quickly as possible, others are more concerned about being as relaxed as possible, and want me to breathe with them as I perform the act, for example. Whatever makes it easier for them, of course, but this is not specific to the bodily arts.
In the gym, with enough time to observe, I can point out the rituals of everybody there. Some people pace around for a few minutes between exercises, others walk to the water fountain (which is different than bringing your own water bottle), others will repeatedly perform very obviously ritualistic movements to “psych” themselves up before lifting a heavy weight. Again, whatever works — whatever it takes for your mind to make the decision that it can, in fact, lift that weight. And it can, of course, but your mind must be in the ‘right place.’ You’ve all experienced this immediately before a body modification — and it’s a very important part of the ritual for many people.
As an athlete since my childhood, it’s been drilled in my head that sport is “ninety percent motivation, ten percent perspiration,” which means exactly what it sounds like — that most of the work to be done is mental, and the physical will follow. Of course, it’s not that simple — we can’t measure something like this. And if this were the case, then all I’d have to do in the gym to get in shape would be to lift weights for a few minutes, and think really hard for the remainder of the hour. If it were only that easy!
But mental state of mind is the biggest factor to influence our physical actions, whether they be bodybuilding or body modification. Those fitness models and athletes in great shape are truly dedicated to what they do. As I said before, it’s not easy lifting all those weights every day, but something keeps these people coming back for more.
It’s been said that visualization is the key to achieving your goals, no matter what they may be, and this can certainly be applied to exercise. To build muscle, you must tear the muscular tissue. This means lifting weights heavier than you’re comfortable with. So how do you make progress? You’ll only make gains if you’re lifting weights that technically you “can’t” lift — if six repetitions at a certain weight is your maximum, you’re going to have to lift eight repetitions to make any gains. Not easy, and something that lies entirely within your mind’s ability to overcome your physical limitations.
In other words, to take control over your own body.
Sound familiar? I’m sure you’ve heard such a phrase in regards to the type of body modification you’re interested in. Piercing, tattooing or scarification (to name a few) are a major mind-fuck for many people. You go into that body art shop knowing that you’re paying somebody to hurt you. Have you ever thought about what kind of conscious effort that takes? It’s certainly very difficult to overcome what you thought were your limitations. Not to take away from the experience (I still get nervous when I get pierced, even after dozens), but people who are serious about bodybuilding feel very similar sensations every single day. Oftentimes it’s only the thought you know, somewhere in your heart, that you’ll live to see another day that gets you through the workout. Or the piercing. Or the suspension.
So for all of you who’ve been asking what bodybuilding has to do with body modification, this is just one example. Both activities take a conscious mental effort to overcome our physical limitations, exercising the mind as well as the body. We’re not so different, after all.
Camille Paglia once said, “Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.”
Dustin Sharrow
PS. I’m very happy to report that my partner is now training three times a week at a mixed martial arts and grappling combat gym. While it is very different from my efforts at getting into shape, she’s loving every minute of it, and subsequently health and fitness have taken on a new importance to both of us, and I couldn’t be happier for her.
