Pastor ink: UM ministers reflect spiritual journey, sacrifice through Christian tattoos
BY JESSICA CONNOR Special Contributor
COLUMBIA, S.C.—Their reasons
are as varied as the ink that marks their flesh. But for a handful of United Methodist pastors in the South Car- olina Conference, their tattoos have become the ultimate symbol of their faith, something that marks them for- ever as God’s own. Some of them hide their tattoos,
afraid of being judged or even run out of church for eternally branding their bodies in this way. But others wear their ink where all
can see, using the tattoos as the ulti- mate conversation-starter when it comes to evangelizing. And whether their tattoos are for
others or for themselves, these pastors aren’t afraid to voice their many rea- sons for getting inked. “Christ has marked me as his own,
so to me I’m symbolizing that I’ve been transformed by God’s grace for- ever,” said the Rev. Michael Bingham, senior pastor of Pond Branch United Methodist Church in Gilbert, who has four Christian tattoos, including one huge back piece featuring St. Michael the Archangel. Mr. Bingham is one of a growing
number of pastors who use their bod- ies to reflect Christianity or their call—or both. The tattoos are often an expression of their faith, but the pas- tors also embrace other elements of the inking process, from the aspect of being marked to the selection of art- work and even the pain as self-denial.
‘Indelibly marked’ Mr. Bingham got his first tattoo in
May 2001, when he graduated from seminary. His mother-in-law gave him $100 as a graduation gift, and he promptly plunked that down on his first tattoo. The irony of it wasn’t lost on either of them. “She’s a little proper,” Mr. Bingham
said, laughing at the memory. But the tattoo itself was no joke to
the Erskine Theological Seminary graduate, who selected the Christian fish symbol (ichthys) with the Latin words “In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus” —in everything may God be glorified. Every one of Mr. Bingham’s tattoos
has carefully thought-out symbolism, and all are intensely personal to him. For his second time under the nee-
dle, to celebrate his commissioning, he got a sword through the Bible on one arm(representing that God’s word is sharper than any doubled-edged sword) with the words “Homo Unius Libri,”from John Wesley’s journal—a man of one book. Then for his ordina- tion in 2004, he got a scroll (an hom- age to history and the writings of
early Christians) and in Latin, “Servus Servorum Dei”—servant to the ser- vants of God. His last one, an 8½-hour back
piece done just a couple of years ago, features a triumphant Revelation- themed St. Michael standing on Lu- cifer,his foot crushing him, with a sword over his head and pointing up to God. The archangel on his back rep- resents triumph over evil. “I say, ‘I’ve got my angel with me
everywhere I go. He’s got my back,’” Mr. Bingham said. He’s thinking about getting his
chest done next, after he settles on just the right artwork. “For me,part of the motivation of
being tattooed is that my faith is in- delibly marked,” Mr. Bingham said. “I cannot deny my faith even if I wanted to; I cannot wash off these marks on my body.” The Rev. Brad Gray, senior pastor
of Greene Street UMC in Columbia, has two tattoos: a 4-5-inch ichthys on the back of his left shoulder blade, and the triquetra (three bodies of the fish in a triangle format with a circle going through it) on the side of his right shoulder. Mr. Gray got his first tattoo when
he was a student at Wofford College and on a trip to San Francisco study- ing the Old West. By fluke, the stu- dents had paid too much for their trip and ended up getting $150 back. So he spent his unexpected cash on a tattoo. “I wanted to be marked,” Mr. Gray
said. “I wasn’t going through anything terrible at that time, but there’s some- thing to be said about that sense of ac- complishment, about sitting through suffering and having it be perma- nent.” But the second tattoo, which he got
in divinity school, came during a time of hardship. He had been wrestling with the call, with faith and with the end of a bad relationship, and the tat- too signifies his commitment to his Christian path. Because it is on his arm, Mr. Gray
can see it in the mirror every day and be constantly reminded that he is a man of God—make no mistake. Other pastors have non-Christian
tattoos in addition to Christian tat- toos, and they are no less meaningful. The Rev. Randy Bowers, senior pastor of Summerton UMC, will not reveal the number of tattoos he has. But for Mr. Bowers, all of his tattoos are an ex- pression of who he is, “a reflection of my life all through—before I was a Christian and then after.” Mr. Bowers was not raised in a
church and didn’t even set foot in one until he was 20 years old and met the girl he would later marry. So his tat- toos reflect a sweeping spiritual jour-
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ney—and not all positive, he said. “They’re a part of who I am at that
period of time in my life: a reflection of my inner feelings, thoughts, who I actually am,” Mr. Bowers said. Most of the tattoos cannot be seen
when he is wearing regular clothing, but the two on his arms that are de- cidedly Christian tattoos are visible. One, a full-color cross with Jesus’ name and a crown of thorns, at first glance appears to be piercing his arm. “The reason behind that one is
that when I became a Christian, the Lord pierced through my life, and I wanted to reflect that in the tattoo,” Mr. Bowers said. The other, a band that fully circles
his arm, features the ichthys and a cross alternating all the way around. He got that one a few years ago after his wife gave him a ring with that pat- tern; medication he takes makes his hands swell, so instead of the ring he decided to put the image on his arm in the form of a tattoo. “It’s kind of like a wedding band,”
Mr. Bowers said. And sure, it’s painful. But that’s
part of the point, for many of these pastors. Mr. Gray said the pain reminds
him that he is real, that painful things will come but will end. Mr. Bingham said the pain is part
of earning the right to wear the tattoo. Much like being a disciple, there is a price you pay spiritually to follow Christ. The pain also serves as a re- minder of the passion of the Christ, His willingness to deny Himself for our sake. “We’re called on as disciples to
deny ourselves,” Mr. Bingham said. “It’s easy to argue that I chose to do that, I didn’t have to endure some temporary pain to wear a mark that says ‘I’m a Christian, I belong to Christ.’ But still, it invokes the concept of self-denial.”
Fear of judgment Not everyone is a fan of tattoos—
especially when it comes to a United Methodist pastor sporting permanent ink on his or her body. Mr. Bowers said he’s had people and even other pastors come up to
COURTESY PHOTOS The Rev Randy Bowers’ tattoos
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him and tell him it’s not Christian to have a tattoo. “I challenge them to point out
where it is in the Bible that says God has stricken anyone dead for having one,” Mr. Bowers said. “We’re all point- ing out, ‘This is a sin, that is a sin,’ and we focus more on what’s a sin than the love of Christ. Yet we’ve got a whole bunch of people who won’t even come into a church because of [that judg- ment].” Mr. Bingham said that because he
is a pastor,he usually covers up his tattoos out of respect to some who might have a problem with it. He said his church knows about his tattoos, and no one has ever chastised him for them. But he has encountered many pas-
tors who come up to him and confess in a whisper that they, too, have a tat- too—yet they are too afraid to tell others out of fear of being judged. Mr. Bingham said he knows more
and more young pastors who are get- ting inked and not hiding it, almost like a rite of passage. According to the American Acad-
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