The lead pastor of David Christian Centre (DCC), Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo, has said that there was no biblical basis for condemning Christians who choose to have tattoos, stressing that faith should be judged by character and obedience to Christ’s teachings rather than outward appearance.
Pastor Okonkwo made the remarks while speaking on Take 3, a programme on News Central Television, where he addressed the growing debate triggered by his recent unveiling of a Bible-inspired tattoo of John 3:16 on his arm.
The popular relationship coach explained that his decision to get a tattoo was not an attempt to challenge Christian values or conform to trends, but a personal choice aimed at spreading the gospel.
“We should not judge others by their tattoos or outward appearance,” he said, adding that “there’s no scripture that says the child of God cannot have tattoo.”
According to him, many objections to tattoos within the church were rooted in personal preferences, church policies, or subjective interpretations rather than clear biblical teachings.
“So people are doing personal preference or what the Holy Spirit told them or what their church policy is. They want to impose this on other people and that’s not how this works,” he said.
Pastor Okonkwo challenged critics to provide concrete reasons, biblical, scientific, or logical for their stance against tattoos.
“Somebody needs to sit me down and spell out, ‘oh tattoos are bad because if somebody draws an ink on their body, their brain goes bad’. And they must give me some either scriptural proof or scientific proof or something to back this thought up,” he said.
He noted that many people label tattoos as “bad” without being able to explain why, describing such thinking as limiting and regressive.
“Nobody can tell me why tattoo is bad. It’s just bad because no reason,” he said.
“This kind of thinking is saddening for me because is this the Africa, when are we going to catch up with development?”
Drawing comparisons, the cleric criticised the tendency to stereotype people based on appearance, likening it to banning pastors from wearing jeans simply because criminals have worn jeans.
“If somebody wore jeans and went to rob, then jeans is now bad and a pastor cannot wear jeans because last week somebody wore jeans and went to rob the bank. What are we talking about?” he asked.
Pastor Okonkwo further argued that moral character cannot be determined by tattoos, pointing out that both good and bad people can have them.
“I can give you 10 good people that have tattoos. You can give me 10 bad people that have tattoos. So what are we going to do now? Are we going to be in bondage to the bad people?” he queried.
He also linked the debate to broader societal issues, including the reluctance of some Christians to participate in politics because of its perceived moral corruption.
“It’s the same reason why some people don’t want to go into politics. They say, ‘Oh, politics is a dirty game,’ so we have left it,” he said.
The pastor concluded by emphasising that true Christianity is about knowing Christ and living according to God’s word, not policing physical appearance.
