Tattoos in Buddhism

[diablo1974]

I cannot say if buddhist tattoo is acceptable or not, but its still up to individual as it is very personal. If we think the skin as just a piece of white paper to write anything we wish onto it then in my view is accceptable. But the only thing is how do we treat the tattoos such as holy images of buddha and mantras. Do we use them as a reminder to our practice, which is important....and very fundamental. Holy images manifested out of compassion as a reminder to attain the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[samayakeeper]

I was recently told that tattoos / body art creates holes in our body that when we pass on, our consciousness would be directed to exit through them (more so if the tattoo was on the lower body) hence directing us to be reborn in the lower realms. Is this true? If that is the case what about people who have an accident???

What if someone had tattoos before they met Buddhism and what about those Thai monks with heaps of mantra tattooed???

Your thoughts please and would appreciate significant facts from any teaching that says it is not allowed cos as far as I have checked, there is no where that says it is wrong for a Buddhist to have Tattoos. Please enlighten me!

There are other orifices on the lower body of either a male or female. Hence the consciousness of the dead person may leave via these orifices rather than through tattooed parts of the body, if it is true. I very much doubt it.
I have heard that having Buddha tattoos on the body is a sign of disrespect because of the negative things we do like slaughtering animals (butcher), copulation, etc.

[metta girl]

Regardless if you have a tattoo or not on your body ...is actually fine  ,cos in my opinion if you are a good person then the tattoo on your body won't harm anyone. Some people who don't have tattoos on their body or even honest looking might turned out to be more dangerous..If u have a Buddha image tattoo on your body ,you have to respect it and let it be a reminder to practice the dharma well & hopefully it will plant the seeds to all who took a glance at the Buddha image .