Tattoos in the Middle Ages? While often associated with criminals or pagans, these marks on the skin could also signal Christian devotion, sacred journeys, and personal identity in unexpected ways.
By Lorris Chevalier
Tattoos today are one of the most visible and personal forms of self-expression, embraced across the Western world as statements of identity, memory, or art. Yet this was different from their original purpose in ancient times. In the classical world (mostly the documented Greek part of it), tattoos were mostly involuntary — branded onto criminals, prisoners, and slaves to mark ownership, punishment, or shame. Their primary function was not self-expression but social control. By contrast, the Middle Ages marked a turning point: tattoos slowly transitioned from forced marks of disgrace into voluntary signs of devotion, belonging, and individual faith. This article explores how that transformation occurred, with particular attention to how Christianity and intercultural influences shaped the meaning and practice of tattooing in medieval Europe.
The phenomenon of medieval tattooing in the West appears to have been rather limited, at least in terms of visual representation. To my knowledge, there are no known depictions of tattooed skin in medieval Western illumination or painting. This absence may suggest the rarity or discreet nature of the practice. However, a handful of written accounts do mention tattoos, providing valuable—if scattered—evidence of their existence and significance during the period.
Tattoos in Antiquity: The Mark of the Marginalised
In ancient Greece and Rome, tattoos (known as stigmata) were signs of degradation. Greek and Roman authorities branded captives, slaves, and criminals with tattoos to strip away individual identity and replace it with a visible marker of subjugation. These tattoos, often applied to visible parts of the body such as the face or arms, reduced the person to a mere function: a servant, a lawbreaker, a defeated enemy. In this context, tattoos were instruments of humiliation and erasure, not empowerment.
A Voluntary Shift: Tattooing and the Rise of Christian Identity
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity in Europe, a slow but profound transformation began. Although some early Christian authorities viewed tattoos with suspicion, associating them with paganism and barbarity, others began to reinterpret bodily markings through the lens of Christian devotion.
The 7th-century Cambrai Homily, one of the earliest known Irish Christian sermons, invokes the idea of receiving “the stigmata and signs of the Cross for Christ’s sake.” As historian Charles MacQuarrie suggests, this language may reflect an early Christian understanding of tattoos as sacred symbols rather than shameful marks. Although the term stigmata could refer to scars or wounds as well, its inclusion in a religious context hints at a shift: tattoos could now represent suffering endured for Christ, rather than punishment from man.
Depiction of St Francis receiving the stigmata, by Giotto (1266–1337)
This theological ambivalence continued throughout the early Middle Ages. The Papal Legates of Hadrian I, writing in 786 CE, reprimanded tattooed Christians in Northumbria, comparing the act to “the pagans by devilish prompting.” However, Hadrian also noted that tattoos done “for the sake of God” could merit divine reward. In other words, it was not the tattoo itself that was condemned, but the intention behind it. The body could be marked for God, provided that the mark symbolised piety rather than superstition.
The Medieval Pilgrim: Tattoos as Sacred Testimony
One of the clearest examples of voluntary Christian tattooing in the Middle Ages comes from the Holy Land. Influenced by Coptic Christian practices in Egypt and Syria, European pilgrims to Jerusalem began to receive tattoos as proof of their devotion and their journey. These were often simple crosses or sacred initials, tattooed on the wrist or forearm. The act marked both a literal and spiritual crossing: a passage into the Holy Land, and a transformation of the self.
The roots of this practice lie in the experiences of Coptic Christians in Muslim-ruled Egypt. After the Arab conquest in the 7th century, Copts were forced to pay special taxes and often had their children taken for conversion. In response, they began tattooing crosses on their children from a young age to mark them as Christian in body and soul—an indelible, protective sign of faith. This powerful gesture was not lost on Western pilgrims, who began adopting similar tattoos as signs of belonging to the universal Church and as a personal souvenir of their spiritual ordeal.
Razzouk Tattoo is a Jerusalem parlour run by a Coptic Christian family that has tattooed Christian pilgrims since the 14th century. Originating in Egypt, the Razzouks moved to Jerusalem in the 18th century and are known as the world’s oldest tattoo business. Photo by Utilisateur:Djampa / Wikimedia Commons
Today, the world’s oldest continuously operating tattoo family—based in Jerusalem—is descended from this tradition. Their Christian tattoos, passed down from the late Middle Ages, remain a continuing legacy of that sacred past.
Cultural Clashes: Tattoos Between Paganism and Piety
Medieval European views on tattooing were deeply shaped by the cultural tensions between Christianity and non-Christian groups. The Vikings, Britons, and Celts were often described by Christian chroniclers as tattooed barbarians. William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, scorned the Britons for their “punctured designs,” linking body art to drunkenness and moral depravity. Yet ironically, these same groups were also among the earliest to adopt Christian tattoos.
The Celts, for instance, incorporated Christian symbols into their traditional body art as they converted to the new faith. Tattoos thus became complex markers of dual identity: both a cultural inheritance and a religious transformation.
According to a later source, the English king Harold II, famously killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, was identified by tattoos on his chest bearing the words “Edith” and “England.” If true, these were not marks of shame, but of love and loyalty—further evidence that, by the High Middle Ages, tattoos had come to embody personal identity and sacred allegiance.
The Birth of the Self: Tattooing and Identity in the Late Middle Ages
Between 1100 and 1600, a broader shift in European thought helped fuel the transformation of tattooing: the rise of individualism. As universities were founded in Bologna and Paris, and as medieval theology and philosophy began to explore the nature of the self, Europeans grew more aware of personal agency and moral responsibility. Christianity increasingly emphasised personal salvation, confession, and accountability for one’s own soul.
In this context, tattoos became tools not of suppression but of self-definition. While many tattoos still signified membership in a religious or cultural group, they also became declarations of individual choice. A tattooed pilgrim, for instance, was not merely part of a collective Christian identity, but also someone who had personally chosen to undertake a journey of faith and have it permanently etched on their body.
The Coptic example once again illustrates this dual nature: their tattoos signified communal suffering and personal belief, imposed by circumstance but embraced by conviction.
The Sacred Skin of the Middle Ages
Tattooing in Western culture underwent a dramatic transformation from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Once an involuntary punishment imposed by powerful empires, tattoos gradually became a voluntary act of devotion, loyalty, and identity. While early Christian authorities grappled with the pagan connotations of body marking, the symbolic power of tattoos eventually found a place within Christian spirituality, especially in the context of pilgrimage and martyrdom.
The Middle Ages marked the beginning of tattooing as a meaningful personal act—an idea that continues to shape how we understand and wear tattoos today. From the heart of medieval Jerusalem to modern studios around the world, the legacy of the Christian tattoo endures not as a relic of shame, but as a symbol of belief, belonging, and self.
Dr Lorris Chevalier, who has a Ph.D. in medieval literature, is a historical advisor for movies, including The Last Duel and Napoleon. Click here to view his website.
Top Image: Researchers from the University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA UW) uncovered a person from medieval Nubia who had this tattoo. It depicts a Christogram and the Greek letters, “alpha” and “omega”. A Christogram is a religious symbol combining the Greek letters “chi” and “rho” to form a monogram abbreviation for the name of Christ.
Tattoos in the Middle Ages? While often associated with criminals or pagans, these marks on the skin could also signal Christian devotion, sacred journeys, and personal identity in unexpected ways.
By Lorris Chevalier
Tattoos today are one of the most visible and personal forms of self-expression, embraced across the Western world as statements of identity, memory, or art. Yet this was different from their original purpose in ancient times. In the classical world (mostly the documented Greek part of it), tattoos were mostly involuntary — branded onto criminals, prisoners, and slaves to mark ownership, punishment, or shame. Their primary function was not self-expression but social control. By contrast, the Middle Ages marked a turning point: tattoos slowly transitioned from forced marks of disgrace into voluntary signs of devotion, belonging, and individual faith. This article explores how that transformation occurred, with particular attention to how Christianity and intercultural influences shaped the meaning and practice of tattooing in medieval Europe.
The phenomenon of medieval tattooing in the West appears to have been rather limited, at least in terms of visual representation. To my knowledge, there are no known depictions of tattooed skin in medieval Western illumination or painting. This absence may suggest the rarity or discreet nature of the practice. However, a handful of written accounts do mention tattoos, providing valuable—if scattered—evidence of their existence and significance during the period.
Tattoos in Antiquity: The Mark of the Marginalised
In ancient Greece and Rome, tattoos (known as stigmata) were signs of degradation. Greek and Roman authorities branded captives, slaves, and criminals with tattoos to strip away individual identity and replace it with a visible marker of subjugation. These tattoos, often applied to visible parts of the body such as the face or arms, reduced the person to a mere function: a servant, a lawbreaker, a defeated enemy. In this context, tattoos were instruments of humiliation and erasure, not empowerment.
A Voluntary Shift: Tattooing and the Rise of Christian Identity
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity in Europe, a slow but profound transformation began. Although some early Christian authorities viewed tattoos with suspicion, associating them with paganism and barbarity, others began to reinterpret bodily markings through the lens of Christian devotion.
The 7th-century Cambrai Homily, one of the earliest known Irish Christian sermons, invokes the idea of receiving “the stigmata and signs of the Cross for Christ’s sake.” As historian Charles MacQuarrie suggests, this language may reflect an early Christian understanding of tattoos as sacred symbols rather than shameful marks. Although the term stigmata could refer to scars or wounds as well, its inclusion in a religious context hints at a shift: tattoos could now represent suffering endured for Christ, rather than punishment from man.
This theological ambivalence continued throughout the early Middle Ages. The Papal Legates of Hadrian I, writing in 786 CE, reprimanded tattooed Christians in Northumbria, comparing the act to “the pagans by devilish prompting.” However, Hadrian also noted that tattoos done “for the sake of God” could merit divine reward. In other words, it was not the tattoo itself that was condemned, but the intention behind it. The body could be marked for God, provided that the mark symbolised piety rather than superstition.
The Medieval Pilgrim: Tattoos as Sacred Testimony
One of the clearest examples of voluntary Christian tattooing in the Middle Ages comes from the Holy Land. Influenced by Coptic Christian practices in Egypt and Syria, European pilgrims to Jerusalem began to receive tattoos as proof of their devotion and their journey. These were often simple crosses or sacred initials, tattooed on the wrist or forearm. The act marked both a literal and spiritual crossing: a passage into the Holy Land, and a transformation of the self.
The roots of this practice lie in the experiences of Coptic Christians in Muslim-ruled Egypt. After the Arab conquest in the 7th century, Copts were forced to pay special taxes and often had their children taken for conversion. In response, they began tattooing crosses on their children from a young age to mark them as Christian in body and soul—an indelible, protective sign of faith. This powerful gesture was not lost on Western pilgrims, who began adopting similar tattoos as signs of belonging to the universal Church and as a personal souvenir of their spiritual ordeal.
Today, the world’s oldest continuously operating tattoo family—based in Jerusalem—is descended from this tradition. Their Christian tattoos, passed down from the late Middle Ages, remain a continuing legacy of that sacred past.
Cultural Clashes: Tattoos Between Paganism and Piety
Medieval European views on tattooing were deeply shaped by the cultural tensions between Christianity and non-Christian groups. The Vikings, Britons, and Celts were often described by Christian chroniclers as tattooed barbarians. William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, scorned the Britons for their “punctured designs,” linking body art to drunkenness and moral depravity. Yet ironically, these same groups were also among the earliest to adopt Christian tattoos.
The Celts, for instance, incorporated Christian symbols into their traditional body art as they converted to the new faith. Tattoos thus became complex markers of dual identity: both a cultural inheritance and a religious transformation.
According to a later source, the English king Harold II, famously killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, was identified by tattoos on his chest bearing the words “Edith” and “England.” If true, these were not marks of shame, but of love and loyalty—further evidence that, by the High Middle Ages, tattoos had come to embody personal identity and sacred allegiance.
The Birth of the Self: Tattooing and Identity in the Late Middle Ages
Between 1100 and 1600, a broader shift in European thought helped fuel the transformation of tattooing: the rise of individualism. As universities were founded in Bologna and Paris, and as medieval theology and philosophy began to explore the nature of the self, Europeans grew more aware of personal agency and moral responsibility. Christianity increasingly emphasised personal salvation, confession, and accountability for one’s own soul.
In this context, tattoos became tools not of suppression but of self-definition. While many tattoos still signified membership in a religious or cultural group, they also became declarations of individual choice. A tattooed pilgrim, for instance, was not merely part of a collective Christian identity, but also someone who had personally chosen to undertake a journey of faith and have it permanently etched on their body.
The Coptic example once again illustrates this dual nature: their tattoos signified communal suffering and personal belief, imposed by circumstance but embraced by conviction.
The Sacred Skin of the Middle Ages
Tattooing in Western culture underwent a dramatic transformation from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Once an involuntary punishment imposed by powerful empires, tattoos gradually became a voluntary act of devotion, loyalty, and identity. While early Christian authorities grappled with the pagan connotations of body marking, the symbolic power of tattoos eventually found a place within Christian spirituality, especially in the context of pilgrimage and martyrdom.
The Middle Ages marked the beginning of tattooing as a meaningful personal act—an idea that continues to shape how we understand and wear tattoos today. From the heart of medieval Jerusalem to modern studios around the world, the legacy of the Christian tattoo endures not as a relic of shame, but as a symbol of belief, belonging, and self.
Dr Lorris Chevalier, who has a Ph.D. in medieval literature, is a historical advisor for movies, including The Last Duel and Napoleon. Click here to view his website.
Click here to read more from Lorris Chevalier
Further Readings:
Fusillo, Isabella, “Tracing Stigma: The Evolution of the Tattoo in the Middle Ages” (2022).
Top Image: Researchers from the University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA UW) uncovered a person from medieval Nubia who had this tattoo. It depicts a Christogram and the Greek letters, “alpha” and “omega”. A Christogram is a religious symbol combining the Greek letters “chi” and “rho” to form a monogram abbreviation for the name of Christ.
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