Men Who are Meaninglessly Marked

Since moving to Ohio, I have asked about half a dozen guys with large and elaborate cross tattoos on their arms if there was any spiritual significance for their decor. For all of them, the answer was no. One just wanted a tattoo and liked the way it looked, another got it because his dad always wore a cross necklass around his neck, and yet another got it in honor of his brother who died, and on and on.

Now, I'm not trying to be judgemental, or imply that these men shouldn't have gotten these tattoos unless they believed in the faith that the symbol stands for. I'm glad at least a couple of them had some kind of personal or emotional purpose behind them. But I just found it interesting that all of these men are marked physically, but not at all spiritually. Which is more important? Hopefully the answer is obvious in that God cares about what's in our hearts and minds, and not about the ink on our shoulders.

Thankfully, I met a gentleman in the hot yoga class that I took on Saturday with a large cross on his back that actually had spiritual significance behind it. He was a Christian and said a Bible verse in Isaiah (I don't recall which specific verse) is what inspired him to get the tattoo. I shook his hand, gave him the brief story of my informal survey, and thanked him for not being one of the many men who are meaninglessly marked.