(27) And God created the human in His image, He created him in the image of God; male and female He created them.
(28) You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, nor incise any marks on yourselves: I am the L-RD.
(ה) זֶ֤ה יֹאמַר֙ לַֽה' אָ֔נִי וְזֶ֖ה יִקְרָ֣א בְשֵֽׁם־יַעֲקֹ֑ב וְזֶ֗ה יִכְתֹּ֤ב יָדוֹ֙ לַֽה' וּבְשֵׁ֥ם יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל יְכַנֶּֽה׃
(5) One shall say: ‘I am the L-RD’S’; And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; And another shall mark his arm "of the L-rd's" and adopt the name of Israel.
(16) Behold, I [God] have engraved you [Zion] upon the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
(ו) הכותב כתבת קעקע, כתב ולא קעקע, קעקע ולא כתב, אינו חיב עד שיכתוב ויקעקע בדיו ובכחול ובכל דבר שהוא רושם. רבי שמעון בן יהודה משום רבי שמעון אומר: אינו חיב עד שיכתוב שם השם, שנאמר (ויקרא יט) וכתבת קעקע לא תתנו בכם אני ה'.
(6) With regard to one who tattoos his skin, [if] he made a mark [an incision in his skin] but did not tattoo in it [that is, did not fill it in with ink, or] tattooed in it [that is, made ink marks on the surface of his skin] but did not make a mar [so that the process of tattooing was not completed] -- he is not liable. He is liable [only] when he marks and tattoos with ink or eye paint or anything that leaves a [permanent] mark. Rabbi Simon ben Judah says in the name of Rabbi Simon, 'He is liable only when he writes the name of G-d,' as it is written in the Torah Leviticus 10: Do not incise any marks on yourselves: I am the L-RD."
הכותב כתובה קעקע בבשרו של חיברו – שניהם חייבים. במה דברים אמורים? בזמן שהיו שניהם מזידין. אבל אמ היו שניהם שוגגין שניהם פטורין. אחד שוגג ואחד מזיד שוגג פתור מזיד חייב. ואינו חייב עד שיכתוב ויקעקע בדיו ובכחול לעבודה זרה. קלפו באוזמול פטור. הרושם על עבדו שלא יברח פטור.
Tosefta Makkot 4:15
One who writes a ketovet ka'aka on the flesh of his fellow - the two of them are culpable. On what circumstances is this said? When the two of them do so deliberately. But, if the two of them were doing so inadvertently, then the two of them are exempt [from culpability]...He is not culpable until he writes and incises with [black] ink or blue dye for the purposes of idolatry. [If he only] scraped him with a cutting tool, he is exempt. He who marks his slave so he will not flee is exempt [from culpability].
Rav Aḥa, son of Rava said to Rav Ashi: [Did Rabbi Shimon mean only] if he actually writes “I am the Lord"? Rav Ashi replied: No, as bar Kappara teaches: One is liable only if he inscribes the name of a false god, as it is stated, “Nor make a written tattoo upon yourselves: I am the Lord."
(2) וכתבת קעקע [NOR SHALL YE IMPRESS] ANY WRITING BY ETCHING [UPON YOU] — i. e. a writing engraved (more lit., dug into) and sunk into the flesh and which can never be erased because it is pricked in with a needle and remains black forever.
[יא] "כְּתֹבֶת קַעֲקַע" (ויקרא יט,כח) הָאֲמוּרָה בַּתּוֹרָה, הוּא שֶׁיִּשְׂרֹט עַל בְּשָׂרוֹ וִימַלֵּא מְקוֹם הַשְּׂרִיטָה כֹּחַל אוֹ דְּיוֹ אוֹ שְׁאָר צִבְעוֹנִין הָרוֹשְׁמִין; וְזֶה הָיָה מִנְהַג הַגּוֹיִים שֶׁרוֹשְׁמִין עַצְמָן לַעֲבוֹדָה זָרָה שֶׁלָּהֶן, כְּלוֹמַר שְׁהוּא עֶבֶד מָכוּר לָהּ וּמֻרְשָׁם לַעֲבוֹדָתָהּ.
וּמֵעֵת שֶׁיִּרְשֹׁם בְּאֶחָד מִדְּבָרִים הָרוֹשְׁמִים אַחַר שֶׁיִּשְׂרֹט, בְּאֵי זֶה מָקוֹם מִן הַגּוּף, בֵּין אִישׁ בֵּין אִשָּׁה--לוֹקֶה.
כָּתַב וְלֹא רָשַׁם בִּצְבָע, אוֹ שֶׁרָשַׁם בִּצְבָע וְלֹא כָתַב בִּשְׂרִיטָה--פָּטוּר: עַד שֶׁיִּכְתֹּב וִיקַעְקַע, שֶׁנֶּאֱמָר "וּכְתֹבֶת קַעֲקַע" (ויקרא יט,כח).
בַּמֶּה דְּבָרִים אֲמוּרִים, בְּכוֹתֵב. אֲבָל זֶה שֶׁכָּתְבוּ בִּבְשָׂרוֹ וְקִעְקְעוּ בּוֹ--אֵינוּ חַיָּב אֵלָא אִם סִיַּע, כְּדֵי שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה מַעֲשֶׂה; אֲבָל אִם לֹא עָשָׂה כְּלוּם, אֵינוּ לוֹקֶה.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah: Laws of Idolatry 12:11
"Incising a mark." The prohibition of tattooing that is biblically derived is making an incision in one's flesh and filling the incision with eye paint, ink, or any dye that leaves an imprint. This was the practice of idolaters who [permanently] marked their bodies for the sake of their idol worship.
Seeing that it is part of revering the Lord and honoring Him not to desecrate our own bodies which He sanctified to enable us to serve Him, the Torah begins with a list of prohibitions designed to emphasize this point. We must not desecrate our heads by removing its hair as is the custom of gentile clergy or fools and drunkards. Neither are we to shave off the beard which represents man’s dignity. Neither are we to make incisions on our skin, something that is customary amongst pagans as an expression of their grief for family members who have died. Excessive mourning of this kind could be interpreted as questioning G’d Who allowed the departed to die. The same applies to a well known method of tattooing one’s skin with indelible ink below the skin, a permanent defacing of one’s body. The only “improvements” to our G’d given body we are to make is the sign of the covenant, i.e. the removal of the foreskin of our males.
In our day, the prohibition against all forms of tattooing regardless of their intent, should be maintained. In addition to the fact that Judaism has a long history of distaste for tattoos, tattooing becomes even more distasteful in a contemporary secular society that is constantly challenging the Jewish concept that we are created b’tzelem Elokim (in the image of G-d) and that our bodies are to be viewed as a precious gift on loan from G-d, to be entrusted into our care and [are] not our personal property to do with as we choose. Voluntary tattooing even if not done for idolatrous purposes expresses a negation of this fundamental Jewish perspective.
Tattooing, Body-Piercing, and Jewish Tradition
CCAR: Central Conference of American Rabbis (North American Reform movement rabbinical association)
https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/nyp-no-5759-4/
The fact that ear-piercing has gained acceptance as a cosmetic practice in our society simply means that some acts that might in theory be defined as chavalah [i.e., the causing of injury to one’s body in the absence of sufficient reason] are not so regarded by most of us. It does not mean that we must accept any and all sorts of bodily alteration as legitimate. We realize how difficult it is to distinguish in this case between the permissible and the impermissible. To [do] so requires that we make value judgments that are inescapably contestable. But Judaism, like religion in general, is all about the making of value judgments; our task as Jews and as students of Torah is thus to arrive at those value judgments that reflect our most coherent understanding of Judaism’s message...
Those Jews who engage in extensive cosmetic surgery, tattooing and body piercing will likely...say that these practices do not constitute chavalah, “needless physical damage,” but instead reflect a desire to adorn the body, not to destroy it. They will remind us that body-piercing as a means of personal adornment is mentioned in the Bible. They will argue that styles of cosmetics, like styles of fashion, are relative to the culture in which we live, that they constitute important means of self-expression for those who adopt them, and that while others may not like them, they are in no position to criticize those who do. Yet to us, this disagreement is not fundamentally one of style and taste; it is about core Jewish values, the beliefs and affirmations upon which we construct our religious lives. Our response is therefore not a condemnation of modes of adornment we do not like but an invitation to those who adopt them to join us in thinking about this question in an essentially Jewish way. As Jews, that is to say, we should not look upon this issue as a debate over cosmetic style. We ought rather to approach it as we approach all questions of human existence: from the perspective of a people that seeks to live a life of holiness (kedushah) in response to its covenant with God. That perspective requires that we consider how our every action, the private as well as the public, contributes toward the sanctification of the world and of our own lives. The way we treat our bodies, including the manner in which we “adorn” them, is a statement of our attitude toward our relationship with God and our duties under the covenant.
https://www.heyalma.com/joey-ramona-is-the-queer-jewish-tattoo-artist-of-our-dreams/
I feel like Jews are often told that we shouldn’t get tattoos, and there are a myriad of reasons for that, but I think that it can be really powerful to reclaim that autonomy and say “actually, I want this and I’m putting this on my body in a really deliberate way.”
There are a few aspects to the practice that I think about, one being that our culture is centered around G-d and existing in the world as we are created, so the job that I do, my career, is part of who I am, and I don’t think that I should have to forgo that because of some archaic rules. Also, tattooing was used [in the Holocaust] to basically reduce the identity of Jews to a number. I think what I’m doing now is an attempt to subvert that, and putting Jewish images on your body permanently is a way of saying, “actually yes, I am Jewish. I’m not a number. I’m a person with all these different faucets, and I’m proud of who I am. And I’m proud of my Jewish identity.”