12/14/2025
Tattoos and the Believer: A Personal and Spiritual Reflection By Sheena Lyn Hanson
Written from Experience, Not Condemnation
This article is not written from a place of judgment, superiority, or perfection. It is written from experience, repentance, deliverance, and understanding. I am someone who has tattoos—many of them—and I got them before I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. At the time, I did not know God. I did not understand spiritual doors, covenants, or consequences. I acted in ignorance, emotion, rebellion, and pain.
Today, walking with God, I carry deep regret—not shame, but sobering awareness. If I can save even one person, especially a young believer, from making a permanent decision with spiritual consequences, then this testimony has served its purpose.
Tattoos Are Never Just Ink
One of the greatest deceptions of this generation is the belief that tattoos are merely “art,” “expression,” or “fashion.” From a spiritual perspective, tattoos are symbols, and symbols carry meaning. Meaning creates agreement. Agreement creates doors.
Every tattoo represents something:
A word
A memory
A person
A season
An emotion
Or a spirit
Many of the tattoos I got were meaningless to me at the time, but they were not meaningless in the spirit. Some contained profane language, curse words, and attachments to people and seasons I later had to be delivered from. I regret those decisions daily—not because God does not love me, but because I now understand what I unknowingly opened myself to.
Tattoos as Open Doors in the Spirit
As I began my journey of healing and deliverance, the Holy Spirit revealed something painful but freeing: some of my tattoos were open doors.
I realized that I had my ex-partner represented on my body multiple times. Though the relationship had ended physically, the markings remained spiritually. During deliverance, it became clear that certain attacks, patterns, and warfare were tied to these markings—agreements I had made without knowing.
Tattoos can become:
Points of spiritual access
Reminders that keep souls tied to past relationships
Legal ground for recurring warfare
Marks that contradict the new life we are trying to live
When you are striving for holiness, purity, and renewal, but your body still carries agreements from your past, conflict can arise.
Why I Would Never Encourage a Christian to Get a Tattoo
As a believer now, I would never encourage a Christian—especially a young Christian—to get a tattoo.
Why?
Because:
Your body no longer belongs to you alone (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)
You are already marked—by the blood of Jesus
You do not need to add to what God has already called holy
What feels harmless now may become warfare later
Even so-called “Christian tattoos” can still become unnecessary openings. Faith is not proven by ink. Identity is not strengthened by markings. Obedience is not demonstrated through symbols on skin.
If you are already saved, already chosen, already called—why mark what God has already claimed?
A Message to the Youth
To the youth of the church: please hear this with love.
Tattoos are permanent decisions often made in temporary emotions. What feels exciting, expressive, or trendy now may become something you must later pray through, fast through, or seek deliverance from.
I beg you—do not mark your body out of:
Pain
Rebellion
Love for someone who may not last
A desire to belong
Or pressure from culture
God has plans for you that require clarity, authority, and freedom. Do not give the enemy unnecessary access.
Grace for Those Who Already Have Tattoos
This message is not to condemn those who already have tattoos—including myself. God is gracious. God redeems. God restores. Deliverance is real. Healing is possible. And freedom can be walked out.
But prevention is better than deliverance.
If you are already marked, there is grace.
If you are considering it, there is wisdom.
Choose wisdom.
My Final Plea
If I could go back, I would not get a single tattoo.
Not one.
Not because God cannot use me—but because I now understand the cost, the warfare, and the unnecessary doors that were opened.
My life belongs to Jesus now—fully, wholly, surrendered.
Let our bodies reflect that surrender.
