An Overview of Tattoos

By: Angaril Posted on: June 28, 2005

The art of tattooing is one of the oldest skills known to the mortal races. Through this art, mundane inks are infused with magical power to serve a variety of uses ranging from entangling an enemy to restoring the soul to the body on the instant of death. Tattoos are used commonly in all major cities and amongst many other groups of people and are often taken for granted. They are seen as conveniences and their mystical nature and rich heritage is all but forgotten. Let us here now tell the story of the art of tattoos, the evolution of its practice and the craft of producing the materials that are required for its use.

Long ago, the earliest Tsol'aa developed the art of tattoos before humans, Xoran or Horkval walked the face of this planet. Few records survive from this obscure chapter of history nevertheless from what remains to us we are able to determine a few facts relating to the Tsol'aa and the development of tattoos.

It would appear that the early Tsol'aa organized themselves into families in the forests of the world. Within the confines of the forest they became skilled hunters and adept warriors. For centuries, even after the emergence of many more mortal races, the Tsol'aa hunters were the most skilled in the ways of the hunt. The Tsol'aa warriors banded together in hunting parties, small groups of related individuals who would often make long expeditions from their homes. Gender seems to not have been an influencing factor in who was included in the hunt and we see that both male and female hunters were in equal portions. These hunting parties could be described as tribal groups wherein a single person acted as the leader of the hunt, making most of the decisions for the group herself. The party leader was designated by having certain marks inscribed on their body with crude paints. This is the earliest known use of tattoos in history.

Over time, the tattoos were more fully developed by the culture of the Tsol'aa and came to be worn commonly by their entire civilization. Tattoos came to represent all manner of things about the individual who wore them though certain forms and patterns had to be observed to express the correct meanings. For instance, a particular image inscribed on the head might symbolize wisdom or insight but when that same image was inscribed on the torso, its meaning could be the exact opposite. The culture eventually came to embrace a distinct set of images that held social meaning, a vocabulary of pictures that included hundreds of different images that could be inscribed.

Tsol'aa society developed quickly and in time the Qui'anar were formed. The Qui'anar was the Tsol'aa society's standing army, the origins of which stretch back to the tribalistic hunting parties of the early Tsol'aa. The Qui'anar were the first to merge a potent brand of magic with the cultural practice of tattooing thus creating tattoos with significant powers designed specifically for military use. These militaristic tattoos had a markedly smaller vocabulary of images to draw on compared to the common tattoos worn by the rest of their society.

It is impossible to determine just what these tattoos did in terms of military application since we stand at a point in history so far removed from the Qui'anar and the times of the Chaos Wars. We can assume that there were many tattoos that did similar things to the tattoos we have today. For example, the web tattoo would have been common among Qui'anar troops and likely was used in conjuction with their spider mounts.

After the Chaos wars were over and the Tsol'aa split into three factions the skill of creating magical tattoos was lost. The fragmentary records of the time shed little light on the subject but from the extracts available it seems that the Tsol'teth, the Qui'anar forces who were irrevocably corrupted in the war, abandoned the practice of tattooing without passing on the secrets of the magical inking process. Thus, the art of tattooing passed out of recorded history for thousands of years.

The story picks up again much closer to modern times in the Aalen forest where a much smaller Tsol'aa community, descended from their ancient progenitors, lived in peaceful isolation. Again, there is little to no record of how the art of tattooing evolved in this culture just as there are no records of the process used by the ancient Qui'anar. However, extant legends from the Aalen peoples tell that the magical tattoos were brought back into cultural use after certain shamans observed their children painting images on each others bodies with brightly colored paints. After a brief span of time from that alleged event, the mystics of the Tsol'aa revealed again the art of inscribing magical tattoos.

The range of images that could be used was greatly diminished from that of ancient times as the particulars of the reborn art were still hazy to the Aalen Tsol'aa. A mere handful of spells were all that could be used from these first tattoos, hardly the superior combat skill that the Qui'anar used to their seemingly great advantage. Nevertheless, the Aalen Tsol'aa were delighted to have restored this part of their ancient culture to their community.

At this point it may be worthwhile to say a word about these first Aalen tattoos. The pigments that were available to the Aalen society were limited in terms of variety and color. They simply did not have adequate resources to create paints in all the shades of the rainbow. It is supposed that the scarcity of different colors was the cause of the limited magical abilities of the first tattoos since after the widespread trade of commercial inks was instituted in modern times, there were a great many more abilities able to be performed by new tattoos.

Perhaps there has been no single person that has had more of an influence in the history of the magical tattoo than the craftsman Rurin. After Rurin pioneered the frontiers of continental trade, the Aalen Tsol'aa saw a vast influx of new wares flowing into their solitary commune including that of commercial inks. These inks were superior to the comparatively crude paints the Tsol'aa were using and quickly replaced all other forms of tattooing pigments in the Tsol'aa culture. The inks were baked pigments, able to be stored conveniently in pocketbelts when not needed and did not need to be kept wet and fresh like paint did. When a tattoo was required, it was a simple matter of grinding the pigment into powder within one's palm to make the ink ready to use.

At the same time Rurin's commercial inks were being bought up in huge quantities, new tattoos were being designed. Feather tattoos, Chameleon tattoos and Prism tattoos began appearing on Tsol'aa bodies throughout the Aalen. It wasn't long before rumors of these tattoos spread from the Aalen across the rest of the continent and within a matter of years the art of inscribing magical tattoos had reached nearly every major society. It is with little doubt that the knowledge of the tattoos passed along the same trade routes that Rurin had established when he first sent his wares into the Vashnar regions.

The popularity of these tattoos in conjunction with the overwhelming success had by the craftsman Rurin in continental trade inspired the man who is perhaps the second greatest figure in the history of the tattoo to market magical tattoos for profit away from the forest home of the Aalen Tsol'aa. This man is Vinci who today resides in Delos. After years spent perfecting the art, Vinci set out to inscribe tattoos in exchange for money, eventually setting up shop in the city of Delos. Today, Vinci remains successful and wealthy having firmly established his reputation as the master of tattoo inscription. In recent times, he has even concocted two entirely new tattoos for general use, the Megalith and the Ox.

Having told the story of the evolution of tattoo inscription, let us turn now to examine the materials used in this process. Rurin's inks revolutionized tattooing by providing a convenient, reliable pigment that could be mass produced and mass marketed. However, the origins of these inks remained cloudy for decades, known only to Rurin himself which ensured his monopoly on the commodity. In recent times, more light has been shed on where these pigments come from though the process by which they are refined still remains a mystery.

Each color of ink has a markedly different place of birth. For some colors, the materials needed to produce the ink are common meaning that the inks can be produced and sold for a lower cost. For other colors, the materials are much more difficult to come by ensuring that prices remain relatively high. There are six different inks that Rurin sells today ranging in cost from a mere 20 gold per ink for the color red to a sizable 400 gold per ink for the color gold. We will now take a more in depth look at these colors starting with the most common, red.

Red ink is formed from a variety of red pigments found in numerous places throughout the world. An abundance of so many pigments has ensured its commonality in tattoo inscription. The primary source of Rurin's trademark color however is to be found in the Pash valley. Rainfall brings a wash of minerals down from the highlands to the valley floor. In this area, the minerals were discovered due to the effect they have on the water. The Pachacha river is stained a rich red color from the mineral deposits before running its course and purging itself of the impurities. The minerals are heavier than the silts that line the banks of the Pash valley and thus, when the river ebbs in dry months, the rich rid material is left on the shore ready to be collected.

Another common source for red pigment is found in the mines of Moghedu where it is extracted from cinnabar deposits. Through processes not entirely known to outsiders, the Mhun transform cinnabar into a dull red pigment which they then sell to Rurin who then processes the pigment further and transforms it into ink. Moghedu is one of the primary sources for a number of color pigments making their relationship to Rurin quite a profitable one.

Red pigment can also be had from rust deposits from various metals though this is not a high quality pigment and is rarely used by Rurin in his inks. The chance of baser materials being mixed in with the ink is quite high and thus lends itself to an inferior end product.

Moghedu is also a chief supplier of blue pigment as well. Cobalt is mined from the depths of the Vashnar mountains in Moghedu where it is ground down and shipped out in vast quantities. The cobalt however is quite dangerous when exposed to the body for long periods of time making its extraction from the mountains slightly more tricky than extracting red pigment. The richness of the color however cannot be equaled by any other substance and were it not for the great abundance of it, the blue pigment would likely cost quite a bit more by virtue of its luxurious look.

Yellow pigment is a difficult substance to come by in any degree of purity. It is most often taken from ochres extracted from the Putoran and Shamtota hills as well as trace amounts from the Vashnars. It comes in a variety of hues, most muddy and dull. There are few ochres that exhibit the rich vibrancy that Rurin so prizes in his yellow inks. Another common source is from the rusts of iron which can take an acceptable shade of yellow given the proper treatment though like their red counterpart, the yellow pigments taken from rust is often a low quality product.

The most unstable color and the one that comes in the fewest hues is green. This color is perhaps the most frustrating to produce due to its lack of a quality source. It is filed off of oxidized copper taken from the Siroccians and other mountain ranges to a lesser extent. Because of this source, the pigment is generally of a sickly pale hue. The Aalen Tsol'aa hold the secret of having a superior green pigment which exhibits a rich dark color the shade of pine needles though they refuse to share the particulars of its manufacture with any but Rurin himself.

Perhaps the most astonishing and remarkable pigment is that of the purple ink. Unlike the other pigments, purple does not share its origins in the minerals of the earth. Rather, it is extracted from shellfish found off the coast of Shastaan. The village people haul up these shellfish and crack them open, revealing a strange liquid within the shell. When this liquid is exposed to the sunlight, it transforms into a dark purple pigment. The reasons for this transformation are unknown however the results cannot be questioned as the pigment made from these extraordinary shellfish is second to none.

Gold ink is the cousin of yellow ink and shares much of its story with its more mundane relative. Yellow pigment is processed from sources already detailed above and then combined with liberal amounts of gold dust and an undisclosed binder to make the final product gleam with a rich and kingly appearance. Indeed, most of its cost is derived from the gold dust alone.

All of these pigments are bought up by Rurin and then manufactured into the ready-made inks that are purchased in shops all over the world. Very few of Rurin's fellow merchants have been able to buy stocks of inks from Rurin to sell for themselves making Rurin very nearly the sole source for tattooing materials.

Such is the story of the tattoo, its origins and history and the story of the materials from which tattoos are made. Truly it is no wonder that the tattoo is such an integral part of our everyday lives.