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‘Let’s Stop the Judging’—Joyce Meyer Shares Why She Got 2 Tattoos at Age 79

joyce meyer
Screenshot from YouTube / @joycemeyer

Author and Bible teacher Joyce Meyer has gotten two tattoos at the age of 79. Meyer announced the news in a video posted to her YouTube channel, where she explained the reasoning behind her decision. 

“I love God, and I wanted the devil to know I belong to Jesus,” said Meyer. “He bought me and paid for me with his blood. I am not my own. I am seriously committed and dedicated to God. And I am not going to let some snooty religious attitude keep somebody else out of heaven.”

Meyer’s last comment referred to a tattoo artist she met in Australia who had been told by Christians that he would go to hell because of his profession. That artist ended up playing a key role in Joyce Meyer and her husband, Dave, getting tattoos. 

Joyce Meyer Shares Her Views on Tattoos

Joyce Meyer is the founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries and a New York Times bestselling author. In the past, Meyer has been associated with the prosperity gospel, although she has since distanced herself from those views. In 2007, she was one of several televangelists (including Benny Hinn, Paula White, Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland) who had their finances investigated by the U.S. Senate. Meyer’s ministry complied with the investigation (which found no evidence of wrongdoing among any of the ministries) and took steps toward greater transparency. 

“We’re going to talk about tattoos for a minute,” said Meyer said in a talk posted in October 2022. She observed that some in the audience think that getting a tattoo is “fine” while some think, “you get a tattoo, you’re on your way to hell.”

“You’re free to think what you want to,” said Meyer. “But you’re not free to judge people who do what you don’t think they should do.” 

She quoted from Isaiah 49:16, which says, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,” and likened this idea to God having his children’s names tattooed on his hands.

“Ever since I read that Scripture that said people had tattooed on their hands, ‘I belong to the Lord,’ I thought, I’m going to get a tattoo that says, ‘I belong to Jesus,’” said Meyer, who was likely referencing Isaiah 44:5. That verse says, “Some will say, ‘I belong to the LORD ’; others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.”

Meyer went on to explain the events that led to her actually getting her tattoos. Five years ago in a meeting in Australia, she mentioned that she wanted to get a tattoo about belonging to Jesus, and a tattoo artist overheard her. “He had gone through the most hellish thing,” said Meyer. “First of all, he had bipolar disorder. And so, his mind was already kind of messed up. And then a bunch of religious Christians got him convinced that because he was a tattoo artist that he was going to hell. When he heard me say that I wanted to get a tattoo that said, ‘I belong to the Lord,’ ‘I belong to Jesus’…he decided to go back into business.”