We cannot judge others based on anything that's skin deep. This goes for pigment and other natural features, but also for manmade features like tattoos.
Even though the Torah prohibits making tattoos, it's only the ACT of tattooing that is forbidden. It is not forbidden to HAVE a tattoo that was made in the past. In other words, the Torah does not require a person to undergo a difficult, costly, and often painful process to have a tattoo removed.
As such, there is nothing objectively wrong — from the perspective of Torah law — with a person who has a tattoo. If the person had elected to get the tattoo in the past with informed consent, then s/he violated a commandment of the Torah. However, we cannot judge anyone for their choices of the past, or even choices in the present, unless we completely understand what is (or was) going on inside that person’s mind:
Do we know as a matter of fact that the person:
1) received a Torah education altogether?
2) truly appreciated the importance of observing G-d’s laws?
3) was fully cognizant of the Divine Will regarding tattoos yet chose to defy?
4) wasn’t motivated by other factors other than recalcitrance?
5) wasn’t acting out of pain, anguish, fear, deference to peer pressure, or some other overwhelming emotional feeling?
6) was 100% healthy in body, sound in mind and spirit at the time?
The answer is NO, we cannot know any of these things. As such, we may NOT judge anyone for a tattoo s/he has, irrespective of whether this person now professes to observe the Torah or not.
Instead, we ought to see and cherish the humanity of that person, that s/he was created in the image of our Divine Creator. Each human being is a unique reflection of the Divine.
This doesn’t mean validating or condoning tattoos. It means ignoring them. Just as you’d ignore the tattooed numbers on the arm of Holocaust survivor. By “ignoring,” I mean that you overlook this blemish on his/her body in realization that this unholy mark categorically does NOT blemish or affect his/her sacrosanct soul in any way.
Judge not a book by its cover. Or in the original words of our sages: “Look not at the vessel, but at what it contains.” (Avot 4:20)
We may judge tattoos, but we may not judge the tattooed.
By looking down on a tattooed person, one is unwittingly committing the same error that the person committed by choosing the tattoo in the first place. One is objectifying the ephemeral body and losing sight of the pristine eternal soul embodied within during her brief sojourn on earth.
Let’s stop the cycle of body objectification and embrace the soul.
On the level of soul, we are all one. Each of us equally beloved and precious before our Creator.
For insight into tattooing in Torah law, please read No Tattoos for Jews.
For practical advice to an already-tattooed individual, please read More Views on Tattoos.
For insight into a timely issue that relates to this topic, please read Pagan Tattoos.
Very well stated and extremely relevant for our times, all times!
"We may judge tattoos, but we may not judge the tattooed"
This is also what I believe. Don't judge the victims, but judge the perpetrators, those who promote what is forbidden. And the intense promotion of the forbidden is now everywhere in our society, entirely ruled by those whose master said: “Blessed art Thou O Lord our God, King of the universe, who permittest the forbidden".