A Tattooed Jesus - Blasphemous or Preaching The Gospel to Today's Generation?

For a visual Jesus when I was growing up, I turned to pictures on Roman Catholic bulletins, the movie series on the life of Jesus featuring Robert Powell, and then there was my book of Bible Stories. All the images showed a long haired, bearded Jesus, but otherwise he was so clean cut. A new campaign from a group in Texas is using a different image of Jesus to preach the gospel. A tattooed Jesus.

The campaign is being spread using large billboards like the above tattooed image of Jesus and it is making some Texans angry. I just saw the video and it touched me so much, I had to share.

In the video, Jesus is shown as a tattoo artist who goes to work and has many different people come in to see Him. Each of them - black, white, old, young, male, female, strong and weak - has a tattoo which they want removed, tattoos that define them, their societal label, their inner demons, and their their sin. Jesus removes their tattoo, and in its place He gives them a different tattoo including some like, "accepted," "freedom, "humble," "love," etc.

All his customers leave very happy but at the end, Jesus is dropping from tiredness. He removes his top to show that all of those tattoos he removed are now on Him. Not only was He removing their sins, but He was taking them on as His own.

I think the video is a great depiction of the gospel, but some people don't agree. Watch below and tell me what you think.