Tattoos have been permanently inked into modern culture, but many wonder if there are devotional taboos to tattoos, and is it truly a genuine Vasihnava practice.



Every where you look these days you can spot a variety of individuals wearing a range of tattoos from butterflies to hearts to more elaborate and exotic type designs. For some reason or another, individuals enjoy decorating their bodies with these unmovable images of skulls, crossbones, snakes, and dragons. Due you realize that over twenty percent of all Americans have a tattoo, which is close to forty million people. Of course, some one of the Hare Krishna faith would be one of the last people you would expect to see among those forty million.

However, there many Hare Krishna devotees that sport the wearing of tattoos and that number is continuing to increase. The question to be asked is does the ancient traditions and scriptures surrounding the Hare Krishna faith have any foundations or regards for wearing the art of tattoos. You could uncover your first clues to answering this question by looking at the tribal traditions in India. In fact, some tribes believe that Rama's greatest devotee, Hanuman, was tattooed on his dislocating shoulder to help relieve his pain each time it reoccurred.

In the nomadic Ribari tribe, women wore many extreme elaborate tattoos. In the Ramnami society, tattooing became a painful custom during the nineteenth century. In fact, they had the name of Rama in Sanskrit tattooed on practically every inch of skin including their tongues and on the inside of their lips. It was thought that this practice was meant to protect them form bigoted caste conscious brahmanas that they had angered by adopting their customs, which are carried on today.

One pujari is known to have three Sanskrit mantras tattoos. Two of these tattoos are in praise to the deity he worships, Govardhana, while the other he views as for his protection, which is Nrsimha, who is the half man half lion incarnation of the Krishna faith. Also, on each of his arms are the sacred pots that are used in fire sacrifices, which are known as sri kumbha.

On his back, he has tattoos of Arjuna and Parashurama, who were known as two of the greatest warriors in Vedic history, which are complemented by a fire sacrifice pit in between them both as a way to protect him from any misfortune. Located on his chest are the Lord Krishna and then His dwarf incarnation, known as Vamana in the aspect of his great beauty. On both of his arms, he has the four sacred symbols of Vishnu, which are the club, disc, conch shell, and the lotus.

All of his tattoos were selected after careful research that took him almost five years to chart. He has readily admitted that he often walks around with his tattoos on full display so that when he is asked about them, then he will have a chance to explain them.

The modern incarnation of tattooing was not around during the birth of Gaudiya Vasihnavism, however, there were very close parallels. During the eighteenth century, there are five purification processes, which are known as panca samskara, along with spiritual initiation with one of them being one direct perception of Krishna. These five purification processes were austerity, wearing tilaka, performing sacrifices, accepting a new name at initiation, and the chanting of mantras. The word austerity simply means accepting the branded marks of Lord Vishnu, which are the considered as the symbols of the club, disc, conch shell, and the lotus.