Can someone with a tattoo be buried in a Jewish cemetary?

Question submitted by Chana Ben-Zechariah: I have heard that someone who has a tattoo is not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetary. Is that true? If the problem is damaging your body, what about people who smoke? Does it matter if the person did teshuva?

There is no source that I could find that specifically prohibits someone with a tattoo from being able to be buried in a Jewish cemetary. That being said, every Jewish burial society can theoretically choose to enact certain rules regarding who they allow to be buried in their plot. This is due to the fact that a) the Shulchan Aruch says that a person should be buried near someone similar to his/her religious observance (and it is assur to have certain types of tattoos), and b) the people who are being buried have a right to request that they be or not be buried near certain people.