Breaking Amish Episode Three: Jeremiah Raber Tattoo Of His Three Children’s Names
September 25, 2012 by Hollywoodite
It has become so well established that Breaking Amish is fake that TLC issued a statement admitting “some of the claims are true… they will be addressed in upcoming episodes.” Which led to (what appeared to be) hasty edits made to episode three during which Jeremiah Raber, 32, got a tattoo and explained it would mean “shunning” for good because “it’s in the bible” that one should never get a tattoo.
Raber never admits to tattooing his children’s names nor that he reportedly left the Amish on-and-off starting 14-years-ago and the tattoo is really about making sure he’s cut off for good this time. He’s turning his back on the community, not the other way around.
Raber has three children with his ex-wife who, according to court documents, divorced him for reasons including domestic violence (he reportedly beat his ex-wife) and then they battled in court over child support and child custody.
On the show, however, Raber pretends to be dating another girl, who appears to be Amish, who would never be allowed to date a divorced father in real life. And then Raber tattoos his kids’ names while not admitting they’re his kids’ names.
In the part of episode three where he’s getting the tattoo, there’s a caption quoting Leviticus 19:28 “You shall not make cuts on your body, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves.” The 32-year-old apostate gets the ink while explaining to the tattoo artist that it’s against his religion but he’s doing it anyway because he’s been “thinking about it for quite some time.” Getting the tattoo will cause “problems in taking me back,” he says assuredly, “there’s no turning back… this tattoo, they’d definitely be against it.”
He explains: “The reason I got the tattoo that I did is because we always believe in the bible, so that’s where the cross comes in. We always believed in very close friends, family, and all that, and that’s where the heart comes in. The three names on my tattoo are three people that are very close to me that have really impacted my life, so I wanna keep them close to my heart.”
Note: I had the names of his kids earlier, from the same court records that document the spousal abuse Raber committed against his ex-wife, and I didn’t publish them at the time. However, Raber clearly doesn’t care whether the names are public because they’re clear enough to read in several shots on a show that airs to around three million people-per-week. So, whatever, the names on the tattoo are: “Tanika” his seven-year-old daughter, “Justin” his five-year-old son, and “Hannah” Raber his three-years-old daughter, in what appears to be age order from left to right. Additionally, it’s speculated Raber already had the tattoo so the artist was probably just touching it up and adding the names.
