This Mishnah talks about somebody who violates the issur (prohibition) of putting a tattoo on their skin. The Mishnah says, “Somebody makes a tattoo on their skin.” A tattoo is a cut they make on their skin, and they would fill it with ink. That person would get Malkot (lashes). If a person wrote on his skin but didn’t make a cut first, and just put ink on top of his skin, not under a cut. Or, or he made a cut in his skin but did not write anything inside that cut. He is not guilty and would not receive Malkot until he writes after making a cut. And also, whether he writes in black ink, blue ink, or anything else that leaves a mark, he needs both of those details to be there: he cuts and then fills it with ink.
Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Shimon says it in the name of Rabbi Shimon. Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda says it in the name of Rabbi Shimon. A person is not liable unless he writes the name of an idol in the cut. And he learns that from the Pasuk (verse). The Pasuk says, Ve-ketovet ka'aka lo titnu vachem, ani Hashem (Do not place a tattoo on yourself. I am Hashem). The fact that it says, ani Hashem (I am Hashem), is telling us that the idea of a tattoo is about putting something other than Hashem onto your body, which would be an idol. So that’s the only way Rabbi Shimon says the Torah forbids putting on a tattoo.