SCCL #6-7

The next two commentaries are merged because they have a commonality: as someone from the Midwest, I'm really not familiar with either of these parts of Christian Culture.

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/6-ichthus-tattoo-aka-jesus-fish.html

First is the Jesus Fish tattoo.  I see these on the back of cars virtually everywhere, but never on tattoos.  Where I've been living for the past decade or so, it's still pretty scandalous for a female CC-er/evangelist to get a tattoo.   Getting a tattoo might mark you as trashy or, much worse, a liberal.  You may start with that innocuous butterfly on your ankle, but soon it'll snowball to you listening to NPR, donating to Planned Parenthood, and *gasp* voting Democrat.  I can't think of a single woman in my undergrad's Campus Crusade for Christ (er, I'm sorry, Cru) that has a tattoo.  And, most of the women in my current school's Christian Legal Society don't seem to have any either (unless they're hidden in a place you wouldn't normally see).

The rules for men are a little looser.  There were a few guys I knew from the worship group that did have tattoos, but these were usually the more "manly" version.  Think less Jesus Fish and more large cross, inspiring Bible verse, or something in memorial to a deceased relative.  One very devout guy I went to high school with got a massive cross on his forearm after he turned eighteen.  The idea of metrosexuality has yet to take hold with Midwestern cultural Christians, so expect any body art to both display their faith and reaffirm their masculinity.

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/7-soul-patches.html

I'm also 100% sure I never saw a soul patch at Cru meetings either.  When you're a guy, spending too much time on your appearance raises a red flag.  While making sure you're presentable in public in one thing, a neatly maintained soul patch begs the question as to what team you're batting for, so to speak.  In my experience, young CC men are typically clean-shaven or have perma-stubble, with maybe a few wearing a more traditional form of facial hair.

You may see a soul patch on the worship leader who is leading the meeting.  These guys tend to be late-twenties, early-thirties and are likely trying to  show that they're not too uncool or stodgy...by styling themselves in a way that many of these young men are avoiding with a ten foot pole.


One major caveat: there are a brand of CC-ers that can be best described as "Alternative" Christians.  They're basically being counter-cultural for Jesus, and will likely talk about eschewing anything of the world for Jesus...by looking like your typical secular hipster/counter-cultural/whatever's in vogue this season.  I once went to a teen revival that was kind of like this and got a punky cross necklace and beanie...that looked almost exactly like something at a Hot Topic.  Probably cost about the same too.  My now agnostic younger sister keeps the necklace in her dorm room as a way of keeping potential converters at bay by making them think she's one of them.  I still wear the hat because it's actually kind of cool looking.

Back to my main point, these Alterna-Christians will likely be the ones with the tattoos, the piercings, the styled hair, etc., like a normal hipster, except for Jesus.



8/20/2011- I have now seen a CC soul patch in the wild!  My very Christian Culture cousin (say that three times fast) is now rocking the soul patch as of earlier this week...which is a large improvement over the ugly porn-stache he was very unironically sporting for much of the summer.