Blessed! What about those tattoos?

I was recently reading stuff around the blogosphere and came to this article about Christians and tattoos. I found it last night and I was too tired to respond at that moment, but I responded today. Here is my response:

Hi, I wanted to thank you for taking the subject of tattoos on from a fairly non-judgmental way. Speaking from a tattooed perspective, I have many tattoos, 99% of which I got before Christ. I have gotten 3 tattoos since, one to mark the occasion of my salvation, and two to change old tattoos that had little meaning into scripture references. I don't just run out and get tattooed anymore because the desire is mostly gone. While I agree that God said in Leviticus 19:28 not to tattoo the body, I live by the gift of grace from God, not by the condemnation of the law. I was attacked by the enemy a lot for my tattoos. He tried very hard to get me to see I couldn't possibly be a Christian because of them. It was a battle that went on in my mind for probably the first year of being a Christian, until the day that God gave me a revelation. If God is sovereign, if He has a plan for my life, if He knows everything, then He knew I was going to have many tattoos, He knew He would be able to turn something He doesn't like, my sins, of which there are many, for His glory! The devil cannot attack me in this way anymore, even when people choose to bring this subject up over and over. God has taught me, through my own appearance, to stop judging others for their appearance, for their plastic surgery for example, that I find silly and frivolous. Who am I to point to the splinter in someone else's eye when I have a log in my own? So how does God use my tattoos for His glory and purpose? I am able to minister to a crowd of folks that others may have trouble ministering to because they can't relate to them. The scriptures I have tattooed are 3:16 and 6:16. People ask me about them all the time. "What do those numbers mean?" And then I share John 3:16 and Jeremiah 6:16 with them and I share the Gospel. God's word does not come back void. The 6:16 covered up and old pagan symbol I had for healer, it looked like a six anyway so it made sense. The 3:16 covered up the letter m that looked like a 3 to most people anyway, so why not turn it into something to honor God? I know there are folks who simply cannot get past the law and I feel sorry for them because I know how much I have been forgiven and I thank God every single day for the grace and mercy He has shown me by dying for me! God has a plan for my life as He does for everyone, mine happens to include tattoos. :)

Boy am I blessed by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ! I thank Him every single day for what He has done. He opened the door of my prison and set me free from my self-imposed 26 year sentence! I am His and I will go and serve Him whenever and wherever He calls! He is the only One who matters! I have no fear of men anymore. I fear the Lord! I pray that each and every one of you may come to know this love and mercy and grace!

Ephesians 2

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.