Fr. Mike Schmitz Got a Tattoo & He's Not Exactly Happy About It

Father Mike Schmitz got a tattoo!?

In 2017, Fr. Mike published a video explaining the Catholic position on tattoos. As of this writing, the video generated more than 1.6 million views over the past few years.

Father Mike Schmitz addressed the issue again in a new video announcing his new tattoo.

In both videos, the priest explains that while the Church does not prohibit tattoos, we must carefully choose this “marking.”

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“There are some tattoos that we, as Christians, would not be able to get.”

He says Christians cannot get tattoos of an evil nature, such as a satanic image. Christians also must be conscious of the location one obtains the tattoo, and be mindful of the amount of tattoos.

In the new video, Father Mike explains why he got his recent tattoo, and why he is not exactly happy about it.

Here’s the video below:

Click here if you cannot see the video above.

At the 3:58 mark, Fr. Mike shows the audience his tattoo, which he obtained at the world’s oldest tattoo parlor in Jerusalem. The tattoo says “IHS” with an image of the Jerusalem cross.

“The Cross stands for either Jesus and the Gospels…or Jerusalem,” he explains.

“The way I knew I wasn’t doing something wrong was I wasn’t happy that I got it.”

“When I chose this, I chose it for a purpose. That purpose wasn’t to make me happy,” he continued.

“There’s something about this that I never, ever, no matter what–I never want to be able to take off Jesus,” Fr. Mike says.

“If you are baptized, you’ve been clothed in Christ. You can’t take Him off. Same with me. I’ve been clothed in Christ in my baptism and I can’t take him off, even if I wanted to. But there is some kind of expression of that. Now it’s on my arm.”

He also says that the tattoo is also an opportunity for evangelization, especially if a stranger asks about it.

“I get to tell them about the cross, but I also get to say, ‘this is the name of Jesus.’