Heard a really great example of Christian cultural hegemony at work when I was out and listening to podcasts. I’m a HUGE fan of Judge John Hodgman and this week they had a question on about tattoos - a guy with 13 tattoos asking about getting a tattoo his wife objected to.

So in asking for more information, Judge John asked him to list what his other tattoos are. Amongst many other things, including his wife’s name and a fozzie bear tattoo, he said he has the Hebrew lettering for the name of G-d on one arm, and Yeshua in Hebrew on his other.

He specified in the letter that it was the name of G-d that’s starts with Y.

You’ll notice I did not say the name. Because you’re not supposed to. In Jewish tradition, the tetragrammaton (the four letter name of G-d) is not supposed to be written, much less tattooed.

The hosts didn’t comment on it, though they did comment that the Corinthians verse the guy also has tattooed on him is a nice one.

But as a Jewish-adjacent person who has since covered up a misguided Hebrew tattoo I got in college when I learned how sacred that stuff is…

…I was kinda taken aback and saddened to hear it not addressed at all. This dude is walking around with a couple of deeply offensive tattoos and the most the hosts said was that they really like that Bible verse.

It’s a great example of Christian hegemony, where a list of explicitly Christian tattoos, including ones that can be construed as antisemitic for how they disregard Jewish tradition to write something *in Hebrew*, is glossed over. I don’t know if it even registered for the host.

I point it out to point how deeply embedded a very specific, supersessionist vision of Christianity is in our American culture.

Dude should cover up that tattoo.