LEV757 Type “Judaism and Tattoos” into Google... If you do this search, you will be quite overwhelmed by the vast number of sites where this topic is discussed in depth and at length.... Yet it is amazing that almost all of the sites touch on three key points. First, the Hebrew Bible has a definitive statement on the subject, found in Leviticus 19:28, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” But while this statement may be definitive, its meaning is open to interpretation, even among the most traditional writers. Second, even though “everyone” thinks that having a tattoo means that you may not be buried in a Jewish Cemetery, that is just not the case. And while no one seems to know how this idea became so widely known and assumed to be true, all the websites want to make sure everyone knows that although tattooing is against Jewish law it would not prohibit burial in a Jewish Cemetery any more than that keeping kosher would. Third, the meaning of tattooing for Jews cannot be separated from the numbers the Nazis tattooed on the arms of Jewish men and women in Auschwitz and other camps during the Holocaust in an effort to categorize and thereby dehumanize them. (by Rebecca T. Alpert).