A prohibited practice in Levitical law involving permanent marks cut or inscribed into the skin. Leviticus 19:28 forbids both incisions for the dead and these tattoos, likely because such practices were associated with pagan mourning rituals or cultic devotion to other gods. The terminology suggests something engraved or imprinted permanently. Israel's distinctiveness from surrounding nations was to be expressed through obedience and holiness, not through body modifications that mimicked Canaanite religious customs. The body itself belonged to God and was not to be permanently altered according to pagan patterns.