here we go everyone time to roll up the sleeves hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents so you might know this but one of the videos that we made that had i think it has the most views um was on the question of can i get a tattoo or should i get a tattoo or something like that something about tattoos and in that video i kind of talked about how in the old testament in the book of leviticus in the book of leviticus chapter 19 it says don't get tattoos don't mark your body don't cut up your body that's good and that's in the bible we also talked about how and why in the new covenant that would no longer be applicable to those in the covenant if your tattoos mean that you're consecrating yourself to something other than god then yeah don't do that if your tattoos mean that you're consecrating yourself for the dead or to the dead then yes don't do that but if they don't mean that i would say there isn't a prohibition specifically or explicitly against any and all kind of tattoos i also talked about how there are some reasons to avoid a tattoo number one um if if they're of an evil thing so it's something that would be satanic something that would be um what's the word lewd would be lewd would be the right word so crude lewd accrued um don't do that um secondly if you find yourself getting tattoos because you hate yourself you know and you want to kind of punish yourself you don't like the way your body looks and so you want to kind of cover that kind of stuff up um that might be a that should maybe should give someone pause the third thing would be just doing it indiscriminately and so i had the recommendation i had the suggestion that if you want to get a tattoo get that whatever that image is imprinted on a piece of wood t-shirt or actually on seven t-shirts and wear that under as an undershirt every single day and if after a year of wearing that same image every single day you want that tattooed on your body then that is a good sign that that's going to be an image that lasts if after a year you're like oh man i am bored of this image then now you know you just dodged a bullet and you don't have that permanently imprinted on your body now i've always wanted to get tattoos i as of yet have zero now that we've summed up that old video let me tell you a tale here's the tale not too long ago i was in the city of jerusalem in fact the old city of jerusalem um no when i made that video on tattoos i mean gosh i'm like 100 years old right now and i'd already concluded like you know there's not really ever a moment um in my life where i need a tattoo i don't really want to get a tattoo in fact the only time i've ever quoted kim kardashian is when she was asked why she didn't have a tattoo and she said you don't put a bumper sticker on a bentley like okay great and so yeah i don't need one don't want one and then about five years ago maybe four years ago i read an article and the article was about this place in jerusalem and it is the world's oldest tattoo parlor and it dates back to the 1300s it's called razook tattoos and it dates back 700 years there are 29 generations of tattooists i guess who have specialized in giving tattoos to pilgrims to the holy land and in the article there was an image of a tattoo that had the jerusalem cross on it which is a big cross and then four crosses in each corner of the cross and then the letters ihs that were underneath it the ihs is the latinate form of the name jesus and also someone could say ihs is iosis omonum salvator jesus savior of mankind but truly what it comes down to is just the name of jesus so it's a jerusalem cross with isis the name of jesus underneath it in latin i thought okay well if i ever get to jerusalem um and i'm and i'm close by if i ever get a tattoo that's the one i'm gonna get so that was about four years ago four or five years ago and uh so a couple weeks ago maybe a couple months ago now i found myself in the old city of jerusalem and uh i was like oh this this tattoo place razook is a block from where we were staying and so one day one afternoon i was like you know what i'm gonna do it i'm gonna walk in and see if they have any room i walked in and they said hello i said you have any room and they said yeah sit down what do you want and i said this thing it was that tattoo here it is i'll show it to you right now it is uh this there it is this ihs with the jerusalem cross that cross stands for either jesus and then uh the north the gospels matthew mark luke and john or it could be jerusalem and then north south east and west basically the gospel has gone up to the whole world and the name of jesus so got the tattoo one of the reasons i knew that i kind of followed my own advice is i didn't just wait one year i didn't put it on a piece of wood okay so you got me on that one but i waited about four or five years and didn't rush out to get it the way i knew that like okay i'm not doing something wrong because that was the thing like is it right to get us that too it's not right but it could be wrong yeah it could be wrong the way i knew that i wasn't doing something wrong was i wasn't happy that i got it let me explain i think i've talked to people and i've listened to people talk about you know yes there are some people who want to punish themselves and maybe cover up their body they don't like how their body looks and so they get a tattoo to either punish or you know cover up others have said i get to tattoo because it makes me happy i i like myself in tattoos i feel i'm prettier or whatever the thing is or more handsome i don't know more dangerous looking that's fine that's good but when i chose this i was choosing it for a purpose and that purpose wasn't to make me happy in fact i there was no you know sometimes you buy something and you have that like buyer's like excitement and then you have the crash or the buyer's remorse or like you you know you do that thing it's like i'm this is awesome and then you have that let down afterwards i was i was confirmed in this choice when there was no crash because there was no upsurge right there was no no dip because there was no flip i don't know what people say and i was like oh yeah there's no spike right so there's no drop because i didn't choose it to make me happy i thought you know what i want um i love israel i love the holy land i love going back to that place where jesus has walked that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us um i love the old city of jerusalem i love the fact that scripture like all these stories of god being involved in our lives happened there and now it happens here right to the four corners of the world i love the fact that here's jesus and then you have matthew mark luke and john bringing that message of christ to the whole world i love having i love the name of jesus and so something in me was like you know what when it comes down to it i want that to be indelible like right i want it to be in a way that i can't take off so i didn't do it like to be happy i did it because there's something obviously permanent right what are the reasons why a husband and wife make a vow to each other they could just keep loving each other but there is something about the valve something about the ring right that that says not just today but forever the same thing is true with the sacraments the sacraments many of them leave an indelible mark on us it's not just us it's not just not just gosh it's not just a sign that we professed our faith it's a sign that actually does something right it changes us inside you know what i want i want to not ever be able to take off jesus yeah that was it i got i want to never be able to take off jesus i love this ring this ring says you're a priest forever i love it because i never i take it off but i also get to put it back on that's a reminder whenever i put it on like yes i'm a priest i want to always be a priest but something something about this that just yeah it was just like i never ever no matter what i ever want to take off jesus you know if you're baptized you've been clothed in christ and you can't take them off same same with me i've been clothed in christ in my baptism and i can't take them off if i wanted to but there's some kind of expression of that i guess you know now it's now it's on my arm and uh i guess that's that um one really cool thing is whenever someone asks like what does that say what does that mean i get to tell them about the cross but then i also get to say and this is the name of jesus i can't tell you how it's wonderful to be able to talk with you all about jesus talk with our students about jesus to talk with with um the people come seek me out about jesus but it's another thing to talk to strangers and be able to say the name of jesus to them this means this stands for the name of jesus and just to see that something in the air changes when you say the name of jesus and this is afforded that opportunity again i didn't do it because it made me happy it hasn't made me happy not hasn't made my life one little bit better but one thing it has done is it reminds me every day that i will never be able to and never want to please god take off jesus take off christ and not be a son of the father it also gives me the opportunity more often than not to be able to say in public and out loud to perfect strangers the name of jesus anyways maybe maybe you think it's cool maybe you think it's lame by the way i'm almost 50 and so like my life's almost over so i'm not like a 20 year old getting a tattoo like no i'm almost dead anyways so like you know it doesn't really matter just kidding so tell myself is that too dark is that too dark i apologize for that anyways follow us here to presents my name's father mike god bless also in the comments let me know maybe you like it maybe you don't like it uh maybe you think it's silly maybe you think it's like uh wait maybe is it like a midlife crisis i hope not i'm way past the middle of my life god bless