Aren’t Hebrew Tattoos cultural appropriation?
The short answer is probably yes, they are. Either because Hebrew is not your language. Or because tattooing is not part of your culture.
A longer answer could maybe start with: so?
I'm aware of the fact that this text might make some people a little bit uncomfortable, but I feel the whole narrative around cultural appropriation is misguided, because it’s based on a false assumption, namely that cultures are some clearly defined and unique sets of rules and formulas. But cultures don’t just pop up out of nowhere. Any culture, without exception, is the result of thousands of years of cultural appropriations. Nothing about any culture was invented in a void and hence somehow belongs to one culture only.
Your Jesus is a cultural appropriation. So is your language. And your music. And your architecture. And so is the fact that you have an anthem and the fact that you shake hands when meeting someone.
Or think of West Side Story. It’s a remake of Romeo and Juliet. But does that mean that Arthur Laurents “culturally appropriated” Shakespeare or English culture and we shouldn’t enjoy it if we’re not British? But then - Shakespeare, in turn, stole the form of the play from the Greek tragedy. So I guess we can’t watch West Side Story if we’re not US American Greeks from London? Or do you feel that Bernstein, in the same play, should not have quoted Latin American rhythms in his music? That’s kind of the whole point of that work! Not to mention that those rhythms were of course brought to South America from Europe. In at least one case we can trace them back to a Middle Eastern rhythm.
But here’s the point: this isn’t true only to the dominant Western culture. The same goes for someone who was born into an ultra orthodox Jewish society and dresses accordingly. The shtreiml on his head and the kittel he wears aren’t Jewish inventions. They were borrowed from 17th century Polish aristocracy and some Jews, for entirely internal Jewish reasons, just decided to stick with them to this day.
And the same goes for the Hebrew bible. None of it is original. All of it, from the beginning to the end is versions of previously told stories about how the world was created or why people exist or what God wants us to do. Check out the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish as an example and compare it to the book of Genesis. Or compare the story of Noah to the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. That tale of a global flood aimed at destroying a wicked mankind was already there, before it was told in the bible. So… should we scratch Genesis chapter 6 through 9?
All that doesn’t make those books and stories less holy. Or less divine, if you believe in that. It does make it a part of an ever evolving stream of cultural consciousness. Just like literally any other cultural phenomenon ever.
In other words: “sticking to our own culture” isn’t just impossible. It goes against the very essence of what cultures are, how they come into being in the first place and how they then evolve.
So by all means, do express yourself and your faith and your ideas and your feelings with a Hebrew tattoo. Or a Chinese one or whatever. You know what? Do dress up as a Jew on Carnaval or Fasching or Halloween or Purim or whatever your specific dressing up holiday is. This is me dressed up as an Indian prince when I was 8. I don’t feel it was wrong in the 1980s and I don’t think it would be wrong today. Frowned upon? Yes. But wrong? Not so much…
Me as an Indian price, ca. 1988
There is one important point, though, we shouldn’t lose sight of. We should always stay respectful. And being respectful isn't always easy or simple. Being respectful is impossible if we are entirely uneducated on an issue. So if you wanna dress up as a Russian, maybe make sure you can find Moscow on a map. And being respectful is impossible if we are not interested in being sensitive. So if you are, deep in your heart, actually looking for a way to be an asshole, just don't. However, respect isn't something social sanctions will just magically compel people to have. And respect is most definitely nothing that grows in a atmosphere of fear and prohibitions.
So if we are honestly looking for ways to make this world a better place, a more inclusive place, a place more people will eventually feel safe and welcomed in, let's put our emphasis on being kind, rather than controlling how others may or may not express themselves in an attempt to lock them up in a hermetically closed, coherent and a-historic culture we imagine for them.
