In part two of this article, I explained many ways and means humans become spiritually tattooed and permanently marked to the point where spiritual intervention is necessary to bring forth healing. In some cases, Godly spiritual warfare is needed in order to break spirits and bondages off of the inflicted (or in some cases self-inflicted). Sometimes, proper Godly counsel is used to deal with the spirits, life experiences, generational curses, etc. that affect the bound. Remember, the scriptures state that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood". Therefore when we deal with the spiritually tattooed, we are dealing with the spirits within and around the people, not the people themselves. We are dealing with spiritual forces and spiritual wickedness in high places that influences the personalities and choices people make. Many times, we tend to deal with people and tend to fight the people instead of dealing with the spiritual forces influencing the people. In the following paragraphs below, here are some of the ways people (Christian or non-Christian) become spiritually tattooed.

Tattoo done by self-infliction: Here, the spiritual tattooing is done by the poor personal choices called sin we make. Some of these choices alter our lives forever to where the fullest potential could never be met. Moses is a prime example of one man who decided to strike the rock to obtain water instead of speaking to the rock to obtain water. It was after this Experience that Moses would see the Promise Land from afar off, but never enter the Promise Land. David's adultery brought forth a lack of discipline and kids who were rebellious against God and his commandments. I can go on and on with other people like Baalam and the Old Testament Saul. However, Jesus desires to heal those with self-inflicted spiritual tattoos.

If we look in Mark chapter two, verses one through eight, we see four men bring a paralyzed man to Jesus. These men could not get inside of the packed house and therefore went to the roof, made a hole in the roof, and lowered the man down in front of Jesus. The first thing Jesus told the man was that his sins were forgiven. After debate from the Pharisees, Jesus proved his power and dominion by telling the man to stand up, take your mat, go home, you are healed. Based on these two actions, the man's sin caused the sickness. This man's succumbing to temptation in order to commit a transgression of a taboo canused in the long run a man becoming spiritually and physically tattooed to the point of being led to the state of totemic death. Jesus dealt with the sin sowed first and then healed the reaped results of the sowed sin. Many Biblical commentaries and Christian medical doctors believed that based on the scriptures of both the sin nature involved and the physical ailment described, this man had a form of a sexually transmitted disease similar to veneral disease. We really do not know about this but we do know that the root problem of sin and the aftermath of the disease had to be dealt with. This action is very similar to the actions of one who chose to sow the self-inflictation of the spiritual tattoo and reaped the scars of regret, shame, and hurt from their actions.

Tattoo done by environment and extenuating circumstances: Here, the spiritual tattoo may not be necessarily due to that person's individual sin. The spiritual tattoo may be due to a generational curse on that person or the results of a sin performed by his parents. The Old Testament person named Mephibosheph is a good example. When the Israelites were attacked in the time of Saul, the king and his family fled to avoid being killed. While fleeing, Saul's grandson (via Saul's son Jonathan who David loved as a brother) was dropped by sheer negligence of the handmaiden and therefore, had a clubbed foot for the rest of his days. Years later, King David asks around for descendants of Jonathan that may be alive in order for David to give them what was rightfully theirs. One of David's assistants remembered that Mephibosheph was still alive. Therefore David sent for Mephibosheph and when Mephibosheph arrived, he was in fear that King David would kill him because of the generational ancestry of his Grandfather Saul. Instead, David showed a forerunning of mercy and compassion similar to the way Jesus had mercy and compassion to the sinner and desolate and made him a member of the King's staff and treated him like royality. Even though in this instance the reaping (tattoo) of someone else's sin (transgression and taboo) that led to death (totem) did not go away in the physical sense in reference to Mephibosheph's injury, the spiritual and mental tattoo was healed when David turned Mephibosheph's life from shame, fear, and embarrasment into joy, dominion and grace.

Tattoo done by affiliation: The Apostle Paul is a perfect example of a person who was physically and spiritually tattooed by his affiliation. If you read the book of Acts, this man was the ultimate Pharisee who persecuted and killed the first Christians everywhere he found them. In fact, Paul said later in a testimony that he was "the Pharisee of Pharisees". We see in Acts chapter nine that Paul was heading towards Damascus and a bright light beamed down upon Paul and blinded him. We do not know what kind of light blinded Paul whether it was laser light, a solar eclipse, or high ultraviolet light. However, the radiant light of God becomes amplified to the point where the darkness of the ink of sin via the tattooing processes are now exposed as Paul was blinded. To pun the phraze, Paul was a "marked man" who had his dealing with God. He was "public enemy number one" in the eyes of the Christians.

The markings and tattoos of the Pharisee affiliation were so renowned that when God commanded Ananias to lay hands on Paul and heal him in Acts chapter nine and verses twelve through eighteen, Ananias did not want to obey God fearing his life would be taken by Paul. However Ananias obeyed God and God removed the scales from Paul's eyes causing Paul to see again and Paul was then baptised. The believers in Jerusalem did not believe Paul either because of his past markings, tattoos and affiliations until Paul preached the name of Jesus. The tattooed affiliation of the Pharisees was now replaced with the sealing of the annointing of God on his life. Paul ended up spending the rest of his life defending the newfound temple faith of Jesus Christ to the culturally diverse world to the point where he ended up dying to set others free from the totems, taboos, transgressions, temptations, and tattoos they were bound to and served. Basically, he imitated Christ by going out (not staying inside of the church) into the culturally diverse world to administer the love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, and mercy of Jesus in order to rescue the perishing from the same totems, taboos, transgressions, temptations, and tattoos they are bound to and serve.

Looking at these different forms of spiritual tattooing, one can see that Satan uses different footholds and strongholds to attempt to permamently scar a person's life. Like the physical tattoos, some individuals after a period of maturity, after experiencing costly ramifications, and after realizing that the totemic lifestyle of performing a taboo by transgressing the laws of God and sucumming to temptation, become ashamed, embarrassed, and repentant of the sins they committed. Seeing the physical reaping of sins sowed, these individuals decide to turn an about face and head towards the temple lifestyle of Jesus Christ and run away from the state of totem they almost reaped. Even though salvation has been experienced and the process of repentance has been started, the scars and the inks from sin tattooed into the spiritual dermis of the individual remains. Like the fifty percent of people who get physical tattoos and later regret them, these individuals who are now walking down the narrow road the Christ now regret the sins they committed. The sin that was once fun for a short (but thought to be immortal) season was the totem they later became bound to idolize and feed to keep alive. Their pursuit of holiness based on their willingness to obey the scriptures and crucify the flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to live within ignites the spark to get rid of the tattoo.

Click here for part four of Tattoo to Temple.