Religious Tattoo

Question:
I love tattoo so much and I am also a catholic trying to regain my faith. I have decided that my next tattoo be something religious. So if anyone has any good ideas about what I should get, please send it to me. I am not looking for a picture of Jesus or anything like that, but more of an abstract tattoo that signifies God's love for us.

Answer:
- Historically many good Catholics have depicted their faith and trust in God in ways that today we might think inappropriate. The Roman-Celtic Britons who opposed the pagan Saxons in Britain, c. 500 AD (whose deeds gave rise to the Arthurian legends) more often than not had images of Our Lady on their shields, or their banners when they went to war. So, if you're thinking about trying to regain you faith and NEED to have a tattoo done then you might try an image of Her. After all, She is intrinsically bound up in the greatest of all deeds, the Incarnation. Another possibility might be the Holy Trinity as depicted in medieval art: ... you often see the Blessed Trinity represented by a diagram. At its centre there is a circle bearing the word DEUS. At equal distances from the circle are three other circles, labeled PATER, FILIUS and SPIRITUS SANCTUS, arranged as the vertices of an equilateral triangle and joined to each other by bands bearing the words NON EST (is not) and joined to the central circle by bands marked EST (is) (from 'We Believe', by Mgr Gilbey, which I keep re-reading and re-reading and...) This tattoo would have the benefit of possibly prompting you to spend some time thinking about this great mystery. Both the idea of an image of Our Lady or the diagram I described which is in Latin have the benefit of being obviously Catholic, which would save you the embarrassment of being some tattooed protestant. They also give you opportunity to evangelize in places where little evangelization seems to occur any-more: pubs, clubs, supermarkets etc. Whenever the inevitable questions arise about the tattoo you can explain to the enquirer about the Catholic Church. I hope this doesn't sound blasphemous, but a depiction of God's Love in the form of a tattoo sounds, to me, theologically sound - after all: "The Word was made Flesh". And Catholicism is nothing if not a sensual religion. Then again, I think smoking is theologically correct because it sums up, to my mind, the whole of Catholic theology: "Contempt for this world, Love of the next". - I always advising sticking within your own culture and going for something that you want to stay with until death. There's a mystic named Conchita (Conception Cabrera de Armida) who carved into her own chest the JHS monogram which to her stood for "Jesus Hominem Salvator". I mean, is that punk or what? (N.B. "punk" is a compliment.) But she lived out the commitment she had spelled out in flesh. This isn't the sort of thing to be rushed. You'll work out what it is you should have eventually. - I normally don't reply to my own messages but I thought I should add, Neil, that there is a downside to a religious tattoo, which I under-emphasized. IRRC the main villain in the film 'Cape Fear' was covered in religious tattoos. You don't want to be associated with the character played by De Niro (or the late, great, Robert Mitchum) do you?