Our Gemara on Amud Beis mentions two prohibitions: 

Bluris, which was a hairstyle that left the hair in the middle while cutting the sides, perhaps looked like a Mohawk, and was offered as a dedication to a pagan deity (See Rambam Laws of Idolatry 11:1). By extension, rabbinic literature refers to Bluris as any gentile style haircut which is at times forbidden if truly a prohibited gentile custom, and at times frowned upon as too secular, even if not idolatrous. 

Our Gemara also mentions efer mikleh which is a prohibition of putting burnt ashes on a wound, because the ash will enter beneath the skin, and thereby appear to be a tattoo. (Ashes have an antibiotic and healing property.) 

In today’s times, the taboo against tattoos has certainly been reduced. As in secular society, greater freedoms are being taken with the body under the assumption that, “It is my body, and it is my right to do with it as I want.” In reflecting on both of these prohibitions, I believe the Torah lifestyle is reminding us of important limits and creating protective factors for us.

The notion that our bodies belong to us is liberating and is part of an important process of respect for individual rights that began with the French enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century.  The idea of intrinsic human rights led to the recognition of rights and freedom from oppressive governments, as well as contributed to the philosophy and thinking of America’s founding fathers in their recognition of “Inalienable human rights endowed by our Creator.” These developments opened up and continue to enable new vistas in self awareness and taking personal responsibility for one’s life choices and actions, which persists in an expansion of consciousness that is ongoing to this day. However there is a darker side to all this.

Jewish theology often balances respect for human rights with boundaries and limits that are theologically set. It is murder to commit suicide. It is not an accident that the same verses that prohibit murder also prohibit suicide, see Rashi Bereishis (9:5-6):

⁦But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man! ⁦Whoever sheds the blood of man, By man shall his blood be shed; For in His image Did God make man.

According to Jewish thinking, our bodies are entrusted by God to us. They are a long term lease, not a purchase! Our bodies must be taken care of and returned in good order. These prohibitions about tattoos, or even hairstyle, remind us that we are guardians and stewards of our bodies, not its owners.

It is ironic that the slogan and legal arguments for abortion, based on the right to privacy and control of one’s body, came at the expense of the sovereign rights of the life in utero. Interestingly, vaccine mandates seem to play the other side of the coin, overriding individual rights in the name of public health and welfare. I am not sure how one is able to rationalize the overriding of individual rights based on a theoretical percentage of risk represented in not being vaccinated versus the abortion of a fetus where there is unequivocal and immediate elimination of life. Yet, the same government supports individual choice in one case and negates it in another. Go figure.

I will conclude with the following thought to explain the value in these seemingly arbitrary Torah prohibitions and interferences with personal freedom. There is a preservational and psychological aspect of realizing that your body does not belong to you, and you are simply charged with the responsibility of self-care as a steward and agent to maintain and safeguard yourself. By recognizing this, one can borrow self-esteem and ego strength because your self-worth is not dependent on your own assessment. One has no right to murder himself because, as the verse states, he is made in the image of God. So too, one has no right to unnecessarily berate or verbally abuse oneself, even inside their own head. Who appointed you a judge of yourself? So long as God gives you life, obviously He is making an affirmation that He believes in you and trusts you to take care of yourself. And so you must do.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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