They most definitely do, Elizu Zaleski is a Brazilian Jew. Orthodox Jews don't but Adam Levine? Bill Goldberg? It's pretty common.
They are bad jews. JK JK. It's probably not observed unless you are very religious.
Do tattoos violate Jewish law?
Most rabbis say yes. Their objection traces to
Leviticus 19.28, which states: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” The Hebrew phrase
k’tovet ka’aka (כתבת קעקע), here rendered as incision, is also sometimes translated as “tattoo.” According to the biblical commentator
Rashi, the phrase refers to a kind of permanent, un-erasable writing engraved on the skin.
There is some debate about the source of this prohibition, but many commentators see it as rooted in a desire to distinguish Jews from idolators, some of whose practices involved the marking of skin as a sign of devotion to pagan deities. As a result, some have suggested that the Torah’s prohibition on tattoos is not absolute, but applies only to those markings associated with idol worship. However,
Orthodox,
Conservative and
Reform authorities all agree that Leviticus and subsequent Jewish tradition reject the practice of tattooing outright.