Short Answer

Tattooing is to inject ink under the skin for beautification purposes. Even if the ink fades over time (sometimes marketed as “semi-permanent”), this process is prohibited because it changes the natural state of your body the way Allah created you. Sticker tattoos, henna tattoos, body painting, and markers/pens do not use a needle to get under the skin, and therefore fade away quickly, so they are not really considered “tattoos” but rather body art. Those are all permissible forms or temporary body art.

Reason for Asking the Question

People love to beautify themselves and tattoos are a popular form of beautification, so the questioner wants to know which forms are permissible.

What the Qur’an and Sunnah Say

The Prophet cursed the lady who practices tattooing and the one who gets herself tattooed (Bukhari #5347)

What the Scholars Said

Imam an-Nawawi: “Washimah refers to the one who does tattoos, which means inserting a needle or the like in the back of the hand, wrist or lip, or elsewhere on the woman’s body until the blood flows. Then that place is filled with ink and it turns blue. That may be done with circles and decorations. It may be a lot or a little…It is prohibited for the one who does it and the one to whom it is done by her choice and at her request.” [Sharh Sahih Muslim, 14:106]

As-San’ani: “Some hadiths explain that tattooing is prohibited because it is changing the creation of Allah, but it is not said that dyeing with henna and things like that come under this same category. Even if it did come under this category, it is exempted according to scholarly consensus and because it happened at the time of the Prophet.”  [Subul as-Salam, 1:150] 

Advice

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Shaykh Mustafa Umar