Draw near, Beliebers, as we update the Domesday Book of celebrity body art, with news that our beloved Justin has availed himself of a new tattoo. As you well know, the famously evangelical teen idol already sports a tattoo of a bird on his hip, and the word "Jesus" in Hebrew down his ribcage. But he has added an image of Christ's face on his left calf – prompting one headline to ask: "Is Justin Bieber making Christianity tattoos cool?"
Now, you probably think that you already know the answer to that one, but stay awhile as a religious studies professor is persuaded by Fox News to discourse on what it all means. "When celebrities express appreciation to God for their talents," explains this Joseph L Price of Whittier College, California, "this generation will see it as aspirational. I think that's what we're seeing Justin do now, whether it's in his choice of body art or in how he has, in recent months, been more explicitly vocal – unprompted, largely – about his faith."
Do you, Professor Price? I must counter that Justin is making a much more profound point, as you'd only expect in Bieberworld. You see, the tattoo is in the precise "artsy" draughtsmanship style that would be deployed were a misguided 36-year-old mother of four to commission a vast Justin Bieber tattoo for her own calf. Thus, in selecting this specific body art genre, the One Time singer is drawing an explicit parallel between his relationship with Christ, and the Beliebers' relationship with him. In fact, he's offering an update on the complex Christological notion of the Logos outlined at the start of St John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the tattoo, and the tattoo was with Bieber, and the tattoo was Bieber."
In conclusion, LiS really does think it would be helpful if people offered significantly less facile analysis of celebrity tattoos in future, even if they're just misspelt Latin or the Nike swoosh.