“Rabbi, if I get a tattoo, can I be buried in a Jewish cemetery?”
As a rabbi in Northern California, I’ve been asked this question many times. It’s a widespread misconception amongst American Jews that a tattoo bars one from being buried in a Jewish cemetery.
The answer, in short, is that although the Torah does indeed forbid us from tattooing our bodies (see Leviticus 19:28), nonetheless, one who has a tattoo can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery. A person who violated the Torah, whether it was by eating non-kosher, working on Shabbos, stealing in business, or getting a tattoo, can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery. If transgressors were excluded from Jewish cemeteries, our cemeteries would be largely empty.
Of course, there are still many other reasons for a Jew not to tattoo himself.
Tattoos used to be taboo in many western circles and nearly unheard of in Jewish circles. In October 1994, Jon Anderson wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Tattoo. What a loaded word it is, rife with associations to goons, goofs, bikers, tribal warriors, carnival artists, drunken sailors and floozies.”
