The Mark of the Slave

One of the most disconcerting signs of our society’s decay has been the proliferation of tattoos. And it only seems to be getting worse.

I grew up in the America and England of the 1960s and 70s. The only “ink” I recall seeing at that time was on veterans of the navy (typically a relatively small image of an anchor or mermaid), and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. That was it. Never a conspicuously visible, multicolored, “artistic” design. To imagine such a thing being common, and on women no less, would have been to enter the realm of science fiction.

For thousands of years, tattoos have been the mark of the slave, the criminal, and the pirate. In short, the dregs of society. This is reflected in the Bible, which in Leviticus 19:28 states, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” The prohibition is presented in the context of warnings against prostituting one’s daughter, wizardry, mediums, sacrifices to Moloch, and other sickly, idolatrous, and barbaric customs. To permanently engrave one’s body with ink is to spit in the face of God and man alike.

In the current era, one peculiar aspect of the phenomenon is its appearance across the socioeconomic spectrum. If it were limited to the lowest classes, we might consider it to be a strictly vulgar pursuit, to appear street-tough and repellant. But when a young lady at Princeton, from an upper-class family involved in molding the cultural, political, and economic shape of the nation, thinks that inscribing on her body the mark of the slave is “cool,” what are we to expect from our elites? Nothing good, for sure.

It’s one more strike against our youth. They have become dumbed down, humorless, self-hating, and uncultured; we poison them with psychotropic drugs, mutilate their genitals, and ruin their health and adulterate their DNA (or simply murder them) with safe and effective injections. Are tattoos their cry for help, or rather their proudly-displayed badge of membership in a new race of botched, confused, and profoundly ugly subhumans?