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Is it permissible to expose the left shoulder but not the right shoulder during Hajj for someone who has a tattoo on their right shoulder and has repented?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Tattoos are forbidden, and one must repent to Allah for them by removing them, feeling remorse, and resolving not to return to them. If removal is difficult due to hardship or the unavailability of a remover, then there is no blame on the person, with the obligation to remove it when possible. Idtiba’ is a Sunnah in Tawaf, and its description is uncovering the right shoulder by placing the rida’ (upper garment) over the left shoulder. The presence of a tattoo does not affect the validity of acts of worship, just as not performing idtiba’ does not necessitate anything.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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