Welcome to Gaia! ::

honestly there is a line. I dont think most of the stuff is wrong. I myself wanted a tattoo of an elven knotting templar cross to show my heritage as a Finish american. there is a history lesson behind that but I am not in the mood. as well I wanted to get a picture of a templar and psalms three on my body as well but a quick request to see if those close to me would care if I had such a thing and they said they would rather that i not.
I think it would be a good idea and I dont see anything wrong with labling yourself property of God permanetly on your skin.

as well if you got in a car wreck I would not blame you for getting plastic surgery to put your face back on. though if you wanted to get a sex change or breast implants....if you wanted to change...to divert yourself from Gods design then I would have a bit of a problem....ear piercings....not too much problem...I dont like them but whatever floats your brick. and there is cultural reasons for ear piercings...I doubt you would have the knowledge of the in depth raditions of ancient servants in the high jewish houses before the time of christ...but ...^_^ who knows

There is a line between what is acceptable and what isn't.

I think sex changes are very much against God, I think altering any part of your body with plastic isn't ok, unless you were in an accident of some kind then if you needed it to look "normal" then I think God would understand given the circumstances.

Piercings, as long as you aren't piercing your private areas you are fine.

Tattoos, as long as you aren't putting other religious symbols that isn't of God then you are ok.
As long as you aren't putting images to honor the dead, you are ok.

I myself have fourteen piercings, and a tattoo.

What's wrong with a tattoo memorialising someone who has died?

According to Lev, all tattoos are sinful. So is shaving, eating shrimp, and wearing poly-cotton blends.

By all means, abide by how your prayers have guided you to act, but I think it's safe to say that your situation isn't the same as everyone else's. Perhaps a memorial tattoo for your grandmother wasn't what God wanted for you for whatever reason, but I think it's a little presumptuous to conclude that all memorial tattoos are sinful for everyone else in the world. You're not the only one who has prayed on this subject.

I'm on the fence about piercings and tattoos. But I do think most cosmetic surgery is a sin because it's like saying God picked the wrong nose or your boobs aren't the right size. If you have a severe deformity that effects your life negatively I wouldn't judge someone for wanting a normal looking face to stop people from staring and whispering at them. Makeup does sometimes improve someone's look but I personally believe in natural beauty. Women with huge nails and bleach blond hair are a dime a dozen but technically I can't say it's wrong. It's still better than slapping God in the face by altering your body or gender.

Cosmetic surgery (barring reconstructive surgery or something similar) frankly rubs me the wrong way, but I feel like I'm kind of a hypocrite for having no problem with piercings, tattoos, makeup, hair dye, etc. but condemning cosmetic surgery.

I feel like piercings and tattoos are ways to express ourselves. Like it or not, appearance plays a huge role in how people perceive you, and almost all of us alter our appearance in at least small ways all the time. Most adults shave (whether it's your face, arms, legs, underarms, pubic region, etc.), we style our hair, we choose how we dress. I don't spend a lot of time obsessing over how I look, but like most people I want to at least look well-groomed and dress in flattering manner. I think most people want to look good. Of course, "looking good" is subjective, but I think we all feel better when we are happy with the way we look.

Tattoos especially are a way to influence how others perceive you. If someone's gone through the trouble to have words or an image on their body for life, odds are it represents something important to them, or at the very least they just really, really like how it looks. I love looking at people's tattoos and hearing the stories about how and why they got it. I feel like someone could learn a lot about me by just looking at my tattoos. You could probably guess that music is important to me, that I like odd animals like snails and the octopus. You would know that someone very close to me had died. And that's just the painfully obvious, just from looking at these tattoos, without knowing anything else about me or having me open my mouth. I think that's pretty neat.

My dilemma with cosmetic surgery is that if I'm okay with people permanently altering their appearance with tattoos or piercings, is cosmetic surgery really all that different? There's two main motivations we have for wanting to look good. One is obviously to appear attractive to a romantic partner or potential romantic partner. The other is to just feel good about ourselves. It feels good to like yourself, and it's hard to like yourself if you hate how you look. So if someone's self-esteem and quality of life would improve significantly if they changed the shape of their nose, or had bigger breasts, or whatever, is that really so different from me liking how the snail tattoo on my forearm looks? Can I really look down on someone for getting a facelift when I've put several pieces of metal in my face just because I like the way it looks?

I guess the difference in my mind is that with things like piercings or tattoos, I see it more as decorating the body that God has crafted us, sort of like painting the walls of your bedroom a different colour, whereas cosmetic surgery is messing with the actual structure of God's creation; more like knocking out walls and remodelling your entire flat. Which do you think would upset your landlord more?

That's how I justify disliking cosmetic surgery while totally condoning piercings and tattoos, anyway. Of course, I don't really think people who have had cosmetic surgery are inferior to me or anything. If their procedure really has improved their quality of life in terms of self-esteem and self-worth, I find it hard to really fault them for it. Of course, in a perfect world people wouldn't need to resort to surgery to feel good about themselves, but we live in a society that places an amazing amount of importance on being physically attractive, so I do understand that hating how you look can be really emotionally debilitating.