Spring tattoo

Even if I were given a promise of the feelings to be removed forever, I would think twice before leaving my faith into the hands of a Paintress.

— Uisge of Gáláwá

Characteristics

The tattoo is a tainted part of skin and takes on the form of an animal, here in a form of either the marmot or the stag. Which animal is chosen is based on the stage of the painting ritual. The whole idea of the tattoo is to extract the trauma and painful emotions and memories, buried deep within the soul above the surface of the consciousness, remove it, refine and let it sink back into the depth of the unconscious.

The technique is fairly rare as the Crying bluebells appeared in the Saveni only several years ago and the plant is extremely rare. Another limiting factor are the people who know how to use it, also known as Painters. Gwanwyn was the healer, who at one point specialized in foraging the bluebells' tears for making the spring tattoo. Her shelter, which became very popular at one point around the Gáláwá/Cymru border is considered one of, if not the best places to perform the Painting ritual.

Painiting and emotional affinity

The choice of the animal of the season reflects the direction imposed onto the bluebell tears in the paint. To choose a Stag means to take the path of emotional descendence, whereas the Marmot represents emotional ascention. The bluebells themselves don't usually hold affinity for any of the emotions, i.e., they will react with the same strength, regardless of the type of emotions. Thus, once the medium for emotions is provided in the paint, the the link to the extracted emotions is established . The emotional affinity is then molded into the object and when in contact with skin, will initiate the extraction process.

How does it work?

After painting the marmot onto the back of the person, the process of bonding their feelings to the tattoo begins and the direction towards the tattoo is established. The emotions connected to the medium are dragged from the Painted into the tattoo and slowly but steadily reach conscioussness. This means that the situation, one faced in the past and which may have been forgotten to some extent, will become as vivid, as if it was taking place right now.

At that point the Paintress will need to use the same brush to remove the tattoo to replace the emotions with the new ones. With each stroke, the feelings will fade away, until the memories are completely bleak.

The final part of the procedure is to paint the Stag to let the new emotions descend into the unconscious and take place of the old ones. The paint will now be infused with the extracted emotions and ready for purification and swap. A simple replacement weave will be used in this case. After the Stag is painted, the flow of emotions will start and the tattoo will slowly seep into the body. The pace of this step will depend on the person and their willingness to change the situation but usually within a few hours, everything is done.

Potential threats

Marmot tattoo

Normally, the marmot tattoo should be removed right after the extraction is completed. However, if the traumatic emotions and memories are surfaced and the Painter is not there, the tattoo bearer is in for serious trouble. Everyone deals with their thought different, so the behaviour is unpredictable. Since the trauma is now physically loacted in the tattoo, some definitely try to remove it, even if at cost of serious injuries. If that happens, then the memories connected with the event will become emotionally bland and colourless. Most probably, the chance to recover from the trauma will be lost forever as all the emotional attachment would be lost.

Stag tattoo

The stag represents autumn and thus, the descendence into the unconscious mind. In this case, there exists a risk of imprinting emotions that could potentially harm the wearer. It all lies in the hands of the Painter. The whole process strongly depends on the trust between the Painter and the tattooed. If that trust is broken anything can happen and the Stag tattoo will pain the memories with emotions that the tattoo bearer did not intended. Depending on how things play out, they could end up being in a state much worse than they were initially.