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Tattooed
Love
By
Steve Beard
Bobby
Doran is not exactly your typical evangelist. He
spends most of his time poking people with sharp
objects for a living. Ink, blood, rubber
gloves-and a smile. Doran is an artist at The
Tattoo Shop in Forth Worth, Texas, and recently
garnered headlines by becoming the latest record
holder for 30 hours of continuous tattooing.
Even
though you wont find his vocation listed in a
seminary course catalog, Doran considers tattooing
his ministry. The church for years has looked at
tattoos as a bad thing. We are trying to show a
different side of it, he told Knight Ridder News
Service. Ninety percent of the people who walk
into a tattoo shop will never walk into a church.
So if we can be the only church that they see,
well, that's good. Doran is no high-pressure
preacher. "I don't force anything down anybody's
throat, but when God says talk to them, I talk to
them," he says. His wife Tanya reports:
"We've had people break down and cry and give
themselves up to God. If it happens, it happens."
Doran's
world record reminded me of a story I heard
recently from the Rev. Jim Smith, pastor of St.
Stephens United Methodist Church in Amarillo,
Texas. It seems that a few years ago, Smith found
himself in an elevator with an exotic couple. The
young mans hair was spiked, his sleeveless shirt
displayed his ink-colored arms, and his eyebrow
and earlobes were pierced. Her tattoos and
piercings were displayed through her
less-than-modest leather and denim outfit.
On
the other side of the elevator stood Smith in his
blue blazer, striped tie, and white starched
shirt. He was, after all, on his way to chair the
board meeting of a conservative evangelical
ministry within the United Methodist Church.
In
order to break the awkward silence, Smith said
aloud, "Well, I don't suppose we are going to
the same meeting." That sparked a laugh and
began the conversation between the buttoned-down
preacher and the inked-up couple. It turns out
that they were at the hotel for the Old School
Reunion-a tattoo artist convention. The couple
even invited the pastor to check it out for
himself; he thanked them for the invitation and
went off to his meeting. After the board meeting,
Jim was invited by Dr. Maxie Dunnam, president of
Asbury Theological Seminary, to grab a cup of
coffee. Smith told Dunnam that he had already been
invited to an event at the hotel. To what? asked
Dunnam. To the Old School Reunion, Smith
responded. The two of them scooted through the
hotel in their business suits looking around for
the tattoo convention. When they found the
registration desk, they were greeted by an older
gentleman covered in ink. He recognized that the
two men were obviously not there to get a touch up
on their dragon tattoos. Bedecked in a sleeveless
t-shirt, black leather vest, and rings wobbling
off his earlobes, the man turned out to be the
head of the convention and invited Dunnam and
Smith to look around as his guests.
Assuming
the pair knew little about tattoos, he held out
his right arm and showed the two visitors a
picture of Jesus ascending into heaven. They both
stared in amazement at the inked forearm. Unsure
if his new friends recognized the figure on his
arm, the man said, Jesus was the son of God. His
Father sent him into the world to be our savior.
He died on the cross to forgive our sins and was
raised from the dead. He ascended into heaven and
is praying for you. He then winsomely asked his
two guests, "Have you ever heard this story
before?" The two ministers had just heard the
most succinct presentation of the gospel ever.
When they confessed they were Methodist preachers,
the tattooed man shouted, "Praise God! You're
my brothers!" He proceeded to hug his new
friends right in the middle of the convention.
"That was the first time in my life I've been
hugged by a man in a leather vest and earrings,"
Smith testifies. The three of them went from booth
to booth as the man told his tattooed colleagues
to meet my two brothers.
Pierced
ears. Crew cuts. Leather vests. Navy blazers.
Sleeveless t-shirts. White starched shirts.
Tattoos. Neckties. Two worlds collided and the
grace of God settled in some unpredictable
directions. While he was on the elevator first
surveying the tattooed couple, Jim Smith had
wondered who would be able to witness for Christ
to them. Culturally, he and they were from two
separate stratospheres. But later as the three new
friends went from booth to booth at the tattoo
convention, Smith was reminded that God is never
left without a witness--even a few colorful ones
to keep us on our toes and remind us that he is
covering all the bases.
Steve
Beard is the founder of Thunderstruck.org and the
editor of Good News magazine.
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