[expand]The Church violently opposed tattooing, condemning it as pagan mutilation. Leviticus was cited: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.” Tattooed individuals were forced to do public penance, sometimes expelled from communities.
But the practice was hard to eliminate—you cannot un-tattoo flesh. Marked individuals simply covered their symbols, wearing long sleeves, avoiding communal bathing. The marks remained, hidden beneath Christian garments, silent testimony to older allegiances.
Over generations, the practice faded. Christian morality made tattooing taboo. The knowledge of symbols, placement, and ritual procedure was lost. By the high Middle Ages, Slavic tattooing had effectively vanished.
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