“To abandon something because others have misused it may be the height of folly…”
- Attar the Chemist.

I read these words that were written at the closing of the 12th century, and I could not help but think how appropriate they were to my life today. For one thing, this whole tattoo ministry thing we are launching. Many of my brothers and sisters in Christ have thrown the baby out with the bath water on this one. They have seen things they disapproved of, and decided that the whole art form needed to go. Well, if you are reading this blog, you probably don’t agree with that line of thinking. Neither do I. But the statement fits on the other side of that tattoo needle too! Those who live outside of that great and all powerful entity known as the Mainstream (someone very wise once called them the Great Vanillas… you know who you are!), have also been guilty of this. Let’s face it, the world of organized religion has not always done the best job of living out our mission. There are a lot of people (me included) who have been hurt by the very people who are professing to be Jesus’ representatives. You can only be slapped so many times before you walk away from the conversation. Let me give you one example…

Rudi and I had a friend in Oregon. Let’s call him Rob. Rob worked at one of our favorite health food stores. He was a great guy! Always happy to see us, and always taking time to be interested in our lives outside the store. Now since we lived in a small town, we would see him walking on a regular basis, and we would both smile and wave. We even met his partner. Yes, Rob was gay. One day as he was the cashier, he happened to ask what I did for a living. I told him I was a preacher. What happened next still makes me sad. He looked as if he was going to actually vomit right there. I could see in his eyes all the crap he had to take from religious people in his life. “It’s ok, I’m not one of those” I said, but it was too late. The door had been closed, locked, bared, and bricked over. I don’t’ think he ever talked to us again. Soon after that he left our town, but we saw him on T.V. He was at a gay pride rally in Portland. There was a man in a bad suit, with a bad haircut literally waving a bible in Rob’s face so close I was sure it was hitting him. It looked like he was yelling that God hated him, or something equally as repulsive. Now no matter how you feel about being gay, the point is that people were being abused that day, not loved. There was no meaningful discussion going on. Rob had endured too many of those conversations to trust a preacher ever again.

Yes, the Bible has been misused to be sure. Most things have! Our challenge living in this day and age, is to look beyond what other people misused, and see the value in things for what they are. Tattoos are not bad. Some are, but not all. Tattooed people are not bad. Some are but not all. Church folks are not all bad, but yes, some are. The point is that each and everyone of us has not only been abused and misused, but we ourselves have been the abusers and misusers!! The time has come to stop living based on old scores and scars, and start dealing with people for who and what they are. The world is changing! Preachers are tattooing, the pierced are praying, and who knows what may be next! But one thing is to be sure… each of us must use our heads, open our hearts, and start seeing people for what they are. Creations of God, for whom Jesus died.

Pete

The world never ceases to amaze me! I just finished writing an article for our church bulletin. This may or may not seem all that amazing on the surface, but stop and think about it for a second. The church I go to is mostly well paid, main stream, white collar, right wing kind of folks. They don’t know me very well (I recently moved back to Michigan), and they tell me I look differently than they do. Yet they seem to love me, and even let me write things for them to read! How cool is that?! As I have told you before, they are being very supportive of us opening a Christian Tattoo shop. Now, what I didn’t tell you, because it hadn’t happened yet, is how my mother-in-law took the news…

We went to see her just the other day. She is an 88 year old wonderful Christian woman. She dresses impeccably, and her condo could easily be mistaken for a Hallmark store. Being 88 however, she is not what you would call a flaming liberal. Now because we will be using our cell phone as the number for the tattoo shop, I am going to have to change my greeting from “Hey, you’ve reached Pete and Rudi”, to “Hey, you’ve reached Sacred Ink Tattoos, where body art has a soul!”. This being the case we figured it would be a good idea to give my mother-in-law a heads up before she called again. It just isn’t a good idea to ‘spring’ things on 88 year olds. So we went over with lunch, and prepared for the worst. I waited until she had finished her bean with ham soup, then chose my words carefully (I also checked to make sure we had a clear path to an exit…. You know, just in case).

“Well Muzz (we call her ‘Muzz’), you know I’ve been struggling with ministry, bla, bla, bla. The church wants to reach some different people, bla, bla, bla. God loves everyone, bla, bla, bla. We are opening a tattoo shop.” There, I had said it. Now I waited. I am pretty sure that the birds stopped chirping for just a split second. At the point where I actually said the word ‘tattoo’, her eyes did the most amazing thing. They grew to about the size of hubcaps off a 67 Chevy. Then just as quickly, they shrank back to normal size. Well, actually a little smaller than normal because she was kind of squinting at me now. I became a little worried that I was about to be using the soup as a new fashion accessory, but that was not to be the case. “Well, what do you think?” I said with the best innocent little preacher voice I could find. To her credit she said that she would have to think about this for a little bit. Some thing require more thought than others. Later, when I told her that I was going to be the tattoo artist, she made somewhat of the same face, only a little less pronounced this time. “Well” she said, “I guess you have to give it a try. You’ll never know unless you try”. I was amazed actually. Now mind you between the lines, and in the tone of her voice there was another message entirely! However, I thought it best to simply look at the words themselves. Much safer that way, don’t you think?

Now my parents simply think it is yet another stupid idea in a long line of stupid ideas. But then again, they thought it was a stupid idea to stop swimming in Jack Daniels and go to church, so ‘stupid’ is a relative term. Pardon the pun.

So all in all I guess things are going pretty good on the road to Sacred Ink. We have found a shop location (more on that to come), our church is standing behind us, our families haven’t disowned us yet, and we are putting together what promises to be one cool shop!!!! Just about everyone who hears about what we are doing seems to think it’s a good idea. So we are hopeful that once the doors are open, we will be busy… yea! Till then, we will keep working to get it open, and we will keep wondering at the strange places God chooses to send us blessings through.

Till next time… Peace!

Pete

So close, and yet so far…. Well, we are well on the road to seeing our vision become a reality. Well, sort of. We were all set to open Sacred Ink Tattoos. We had the place picked out, we were picking fonts for the sign, and then we met, (think scary music here) the Chief Zoning Inspector (think frantic screaming here). He was so helpful, he even gave us the useful suggestion that we look in another town to set up shop. I am sure he had only our best interests at heart. So, we have driven every major street in this town, which by the way happens to be the third largest city in Michigan (I think). As near as I can tell, there is only one more place that fits our needs and budget all at the same time. Well, I guess God knows that I am not the sharpest tool in the box (yes, I really did just call myself a tool), and so it looks like He as narrowed the search for me. That way I don’t have to make as many pesky decisions.

Now as frustrating as all this is, a strangely uplifting and odd thing has happened in the meantime. The church I attend is a wonderful place that is filled with fairly affluent mainstream folks. When our “Pulpit Minister” (but really he ministers to more than the pulpit. Although, the pulpits do seem rather happy) announced to our congregation that we were opening a Christian tattoo shop, the people actually responded very well. Even though it may be pretty far outside their box, they think it is a great idea. I guess it just goes to show you…. You never know where and when you may be blessed. How cool is it to belong to a group of people who love God, more than they love their own preconceived notions about how things “ought” to be done?!?!? Then again, how cool is it to have a God that loves us this much anyway?!?!?!

Now here is a funny turn of events. In between the last paragraph, and this one, my whole day went right down the sewer! Funny how that works isn’t it? I guess it is a lot like getting tattooed. One spot feels like a hot poker, then the needle moves a quarter of an inch, and thing are just fine. But you always know, that at any given moment, without any warning, that hot poker is coming back! Hey if it didn’t hurt, it wouldn’t be a tattoo. And if it didn’t hurt, it wouldn’t be real life, now would it.

I hope you like the picture of me that should be on this page. Not many people can get away with the Santa glasses!! I am still new at all this, and am doing my best to figure it out. Just like life…..