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The Talmud (in Masekhet Shabbat 120b) directly discusses this issue: דתניא: הרי שהיה שם כתוב לו על בשרו - הרי זה לא ירחוץ ולא יסוך ולא יעמוד במקום הטינופת. נזדמנה לו טבילה של מצוה - כורך עליה גמי ויורד וטובל. רבי יוסי אומר: לעולם יורד וטובל כדרכו, ובלבד שלא ישפשף As it was taught in a baraita: If one had a sacred name of God written on his skin he ...

UPDATE: Shalom pointed to the article "Medical and Cosmetic Tattooing" by J. David Bleich (Tradition 42:4), in which a pseudo-Kabbalist directed a woman to get a tattoo containing the Divine Name. The question of removing it was brought to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and printed in Or ha-Torah Shevat 5762. R. Bleich's summarizes R. ...

It's one thing to break laws; it's another to explicitly acknowledge the lawgiver in the process of doing so. One would generally only do so if one intended to offend, so if there are those who take offense one can hardly be surprised. Even if in your particular case it was done in ignorance, people tend not to assume that. Which is understandable, weighing ...

According to this article: "Rav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (Techumin 22:387)...recommends removing the tattoo to avoid the constant reminder of an earlier sin. He even permits, in certain circumstances, the removal of Hashem’s name that was [sinfully] tattooed on one’s body, even though it is ordinarily forbidden to erase Hashem’s name."

Rabbi JD Bleich had a piece in Tradition 42:4 in which he mentions the story (you can't make this stuff up!) of a woman who fell under the sway of a pseudo-kabbalist who convinced her [was he seeing just how far he could go?!] to tattoo her right bicep with the verse "and no tattoo shall be upon you, I am G-d." Now she asked about lasering it off. (B'n ...

According to this article, Rav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (Techumin 22:387) viewed the removal of a tattoo as a meritorious act to avoid remembering a previous sinful life. However, Dayan Weisz (Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak 3:11) does not (seem to) agree that this is necessary. (This is aside from the opinion of Rav Ephraim Oshry (Teshuvot Mee’ma’makim 4:22) that ...

This answer states that permanent makeup is allowed. He bases it mainly on the fact tattooing is forbidden when two actions are involved - writing (ink filling) and scratching/cutting into the skin. However, he adds a few more things into the discussion, one is that the outcome is just some color, not a distinguishable shape. Another - that it's not really ...

The Mishna (Shabbat 12:4) discusses the prohibition of writing on Shabbat. In that context, it says the following: הכותב על בשרו - חיב. המסרט על בשרו - רבי אליעזר מחיב חטאת ורבי יהושע פוטר One who writes upon his skin is obligated [to bring a sin offering]. Concerning one who engraves his skin, Rabbi Eliezer obligates him to bring a sin ...