Kosher Tattoos ... Not an Oxymoron

(28) You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or any incised writing upon you: I am Adonai.

(6) One who writes incised writing- if one writes without incising, or incises without writing, one is not liable for lashes, unless it has been written and incised with ink or blue or anything that leaves an impression. Rabbi Shimon ben Yehudah said in the name of Rabbi Shimon: One is not liable until the name of God is written there. As it says (Leviticus 19): "...or any incised writing upon you: I am Adonai."

He said to him, Rav Aha Barya of Raba to Rav Asee: "Until one will explicitly write 'I am God'"? He said to him,"No- it is like that which Bar Kapra taught, one is not liable until the name of an idol is written. As it says, 'or any incised writing upon you: I am Adonai.' I am God and no other."

(11) The incised writing that is spoken of in the Torah is cutting the flesh and filling it with blue or ink or other dyes.This was the custom of the idolaters, to mark themselves for idolatry, that is to say he is a slave sold to it and denoted for service. And once a man or woman marks themselves in any place on the body he is lashed. If one wrote but did not mark with dye, or he marked with dye and did not write with scratching he is exempt until he writes and engraves as it says, “writes and engraves”(Leviticus 19:28)."