Don’t Let Them See My Fake Tattoos at the Temple

A few days ago, I got a bunch of dinosaur and dragon fake tattoos. They were, of course, for my niece and nephew who are 2 and 5. It wasn’t like I got them for myself at all. Yet, I had to try them out to make sure that they were high-quality fake tattoos. They supposedly glow in the dark. As a good aunt, I wouldn’t want the kids using glow-in-the-dark fake tattoos that don’t glow in the dark properly. It was 100% unselfish on my part. In case you were wondering, they do glow in the dark, but they do require a bright light, such as a flashlight, to work at all.

This is one of the fake tattoos.

Hiding the Fake Tattoos at the Temple

This morning, I went to the temple. Both fake tattoos are on my forearms. With long sleeves, you generally can’t see them. Unfortunately, my temple dress sleeves tend to creep up a little at times. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough that if I wasn’t paying attention, the tip of the tattoo would start showing. I kept tugging on the sleeves a bit. I’m not sure if I was more embarrassed that people might think that they were real tattoos or that they might judge me for having fake tattoos.

I’ll admit it. I’ve never had a fake tattoo at the temple. It felt a bit wrong. I can remember as a youth being told to not wear nailpolish, earrings, or a number of other things at the temple. While these things are more acceptable at the temple now, I definitely feel self-conscious at the temple if I’m wearing nailpolish or earrings that feel a bit flashy. My fake tattoos definitely felt flashier than that.

Here's the other one of the fake tattoos.

Lessons Learned from Fake Tattoos

What’s the takeaway? I’m going to allow you to decide which lesson you think you should learn from this experience.

Hiding Our Sins

I’ll admit it. I felt a bit like I was hiding a sin. If no one saw what was on my arm, it wasn’t there, right? Don’t we all feel a bit like that at times? If no one knows about your sin, it feels less like it’s real. Unfortuantely, no matter how much we try to hide what we are doing from the world, the sin doesn’t just go away. Fortunately for us, we all have the chance to repent.

Embarrassed About What Others May Think

I was embarrassed of what people would think if they saw my dinosaur and dragon fake tattoos. Don’t we all feel that way at times? Maybe, we don’t want to sing in sacrament meeting because we don’t think that we have a good voice. Perhaps, we like to dance in the privacy of our own homes. Yet, we’re embarrassed that we were dancing when someone else walked into the room.

I think we all have those moments when we care a little too much about what other people think of us. At times, our desire to hide our insecurities makes the situation worse. The people sitting near me probably wouldn’t have seen or cared about my fake tattoos if my sleeve had gone up a little too much. Yet, because I was pulling on my sleeves so much to cover them up, I likely drew extra attention to them.

While it’s not always easy to implement this in our lives, it is important to remember that what other people think of us really doesn’t matter in the end. Other than Heavenly Father’s opinion, there really aren’t a lot of opinions that should matter to us.

Next Time, Take Off the Fake Tattoos

Perhaps, the lesson that I need to learn is to take off the fake tattoos before going to the temple next time. If I’m uncomfortable having them on at the temple, maybe that was the Spirit telling me that they weren’t entirely appropriate for the situation.

By Shilo Dawn Goodson

My name is Shilo Dawn Goodson. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reading and writing are my two big passions.