Religion in ink

LUBBOCK, Texas - Ruby Tarango and Raul Lucio decided they wanted to get matching tattoos.

But not just any tattoo. The couple chose rosaries, a Catholic symbol of devotion prayed to the Virgin Mary.

Lucio's black ink tattoo wraps around his upper arm, while Tarango's sits on her wrist like a bracelet. A large cross has been resting on her hand for more than two years.

It's one of several religious tattoos Lucio has: praying hands on his ankle, an angel on another, a second angel on his shoulder, a large cross on his back.

All are outward signs of his faith, signs that will be there forever.

Felipe Esparza, owner of Esparza's Tattoo and the artist behind Lucio and Tarango's tattoos, said he receives countless requests for religious tattoos.

Justin Adkins, an artist at Big Buddha Tattoo, said about a quarter to one-third of the work done at his shop is comprised of tiny crosses, the Christian fish symbol and other religious imagery.

And Tim Kohtz, an artist at Inkfluence Tattoo, said religious tattoos are the most common request at the shop.

Religious tattoos have become so popular that there's even a Christian Tattoo Association. With hundreds and hundreds of churches across town, it doesn't surprise any of these Lubbock tattoo artists.

"Well. This is West Texas, so we get a lot of (requests for) religious stuff," Kohtz said.

Texas Tech sociology professor Jerome Koch studied religious tattoos and found that tattoos seem to become more mainstream, making them more popular among the religious community, and specifically Lubbock.

"Today's single tattoo is kind of like yesterday's Beatles haircut," Koch said. "It's a way of expressing yourself uniquely, just like everybody else."

Koch led a team-conducted survey of students at four different universities and found that religious students were less likely to participate in deviant behavior - drink alcohol illegally, use illegal drugs or engage in premarital or extramarital sex. But religion was not a factor when it came to getting a tat

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