Founder of the David Christian Centre and popular relationship coach, Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo, has said no scripture forbids tattoos.

This was after he was heavily criticised on social media for getting tattoos on his arm last week.

In response, the cleric stated that those against his decision have no scriptural backing but preferences.

Pastor Okonkwo said in an interview, "There's no scripture that says a child of God cannot have tattoo. So, people are (just) doing personal preference, or what the Holy Spirit told them, or their church's preferences. They want to impose this on other people, and that's not how this works. Everyone needs to know Christ and the word of God.

"Somebody needs to sit me down and say tattoos are bad because if somebody draws ink on their body, their brain goes bad; if somebody draws ink on their body, their character suddenly goes bad. They must give me scriptural or scientific proof, or something to back this up."

"Nobody can tell me why tattoo is bad. It's just bad because... no reason. This kind of thinking is saddening for me because how is Africa going to catch up with development if we are still thinking 'oh, somebody wore jeans and went to rob, so jeans are now bad. Pastor cannot wear jeans because last week somebody wore jeans and went to rob a bank'. What are we talking about? So, I don't see the basis."

ASA