I’ve shared this story with a few people lately, so I decided to revive this post and move it back up the list.  Enjoy.

—- From 2009

Well sorry it took me so long to blog about this. I’ve been extremely busy lately but the real reason is that I didn’t have a decent picture of the tattoo to upload. The story of this new tattoo is pretty cool. For about 3 years now I have been considering a tattoo, but truth be told, I’m kind of a wuss when it comes to pain. But I’ve had this design in my head for all that time. Recently a good friend who had been filling in for me at the church when I was on sabbatical shared an idea with me. He basically had a really cool sermon idea about God’s love, using some tattoo symbolism. He shared that he always thought it would be cool to have someone get inked in church while he was preaching the sermon. We laughed and I half-jokingly said, “you could totally get away with it at Urban”.
A short time later I learned that someone at the church is a tattoo artist. I won’t share his story just now, but it didn’t take long for God to bring the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind. I realized… “Hey, I want a tattoo, Jeff wants to preach about it and have someone get one during the service, and I have a guy who can actually do it!”

So yes, we were just crazy enough to do it. About a month ago (January ’09) we arranged to have me get tattooed while Jeff preached. At first I don’t think most people knew what was going on. After the music, I just sat down in the sterile area up front that we had set up and Jeff got up and started speaking. In a few minutes the tattoo was started and people started to hear the buzzing of the needle. Then Jeff started to describe what was going on and the congregation erupted in applause. That was kind of surprising, but I think people were really diggin’ the whole scruffy church vibe of what was going on.

In the middle of Jeff’s message, he brought a microphone over to me and asked me about the tattoo’s symbolism. I described it’s meaning and shared the scriptures that applied to it. The short version… The tattoo is essentially 3 links of chain, although the links are made up of 3 stranded cord or rope, not steel. From a distance, it kind of looks like chain and up close it looks like knotted rope.

The fact that it’s chain represents my calling as a pastor and bondservant of Christ as the Apostle Paul describes it.

That there are 3 links represents God’s continual presence in my life in all three facets of His personality; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The 3 stranded cord comes from the Old Testament where Solomon talks about how a cord of 3 strands is not easily broken. In my life the 3 strands became 2 and subsequently the cord was broken. (symbolically) The reason my tattoo is made of unbroken 3 stranded cord represents my future marriage which I fully believe God will bring about when I find that right person. So whoever my future wife is, this tattoo is partly for you.  Update July ’09 – I got married on July 20th to my beautiful wife, Gretchen.  Gretchen, the cord is for me, you, and Christ.  For more about this exciting development in my life, read the blog entry entitled “Redemption”.

The fact that the tattoo is on my left shoulder represents my relationship with my God. In much the same way a wedding ring is worn on the left hand, this tattoo is a marriage symbol of sorts between God and I.

The pain was also significant and reminds me that often, really great things in life come with an amount of pain. Pain is a part of life, yet amidst the pain God often does the most wonderful things. Amidst my own life’s pain, God has brought me to amazing new places in my relationship with Him and also with many of those who love me. I can honestly say that because of His love for me, my life is good…challenges and all.

Lastly the permanence of the tattoo reminds me that no matter what, I cannot run, hide, deny, turn off, or get away from God’s love for me. His love for us is permanent and there is nothing we can do to stop Him from loving us.

When the service was over, there were several people who came to me with tears in their eyes because they were so touched by what God was revealing to them thru this rather out-of-the-box morning. Jeff’s message was perfect and God used it to penetrate hearts and do some amazing things in people’s lives. I think one of the coolest things God did was to help people understand that they are loved and accepted. You see most of the people in our church have tats. A lot of them keep them undercover and some people feel self-conscious because at some point in their lives some Christian or church made them feel dirty for having tattoos. What a shame because that’s utter crap!!! Yeah, I said it.

Without getting into a theological debate on the blog, I’ll just say in short that the Bible does not prohibit tattooing. Marking your body to identify you as someone who worships an idol? Well that’s a different story. But tattoos are not evil or bad. And shame on any church or Christian who cause people to feel unworthy of God’s love just because they have some ink in their skin. One of the coolest things to happen on tat Sunday was when a guy in our church brought a Bible up to me while I was getting inked and showed me the passage that says “God does not judge by outward appearance”. That’s the truth of the matter. A relationship with God has nothing to do with outward appearance. God loves the scruffy and imperfect. By the way, that describes everybody no matter how highly one thinks of themselves. We are all scruffy!!! So Dave, thanks for doing that, it really touched me that morning. And it is so right.

Not only does God love the scruffy, but so does Urban. Want to come and be accepted no matter how you dress or look? No problem, come on out.

Ok, now a little about tat addiction. When I first set this all up, I was convinced in my mind that it would only be this one… no more. “No way I’ll get addicted to tattooing, remember I’m a wuss with pain?” It was so weird. When the artist told me he was done that morning, I felt a let down. AH! Now I get what people with multiple tats have been saying. There was something about the experience that was deeply spiritual. I can’t describe it. If you don’t have any tattoos, you won’t “get it” any more than I did. But I am ready for number 2. Yep, it’s true. I plan to have an Icthus done. (the ancient fish symbol for the church) Number 3? Who knows. No plans for a number 3. Yet???  Update October ’09 - I’m planning some more work.  My wife likes the idea of adding initials to the chain links to represent our family.  I’m also gonna add some work around the Icthus, probably a celtic knot of some kind.  I can’t wait!

Anyway, the art turned out great, the tattoo is exactly what I wanted and turned out how I wanted it to. The artist is AWESOME! Great job. I wouldn’t go to anyone else. You rock. I am so grateful and honored to have had you do my tattoo. Truly honored.

Ok, that’s the short story of the crazy pastor who got his first tattoo during a Sunday service.