Huh, I haven't seen tattoos like these before...
The people of the
Solanian Empire wear
Masks that hide their faces. For official officers of the law and other people that need an ID the
Solanians will present their hands and arms together with their identification papers.
The tattoos
Being a
tattoo artist is a very high status trade and it is counted as a health care profession, which means that tattoo artist are allowed to look at the face of a fellow
Solanian.
There are several symbols that mean things like age, preferred gender nouns, and other information. This information is then also transferred to a person's official identification papers that are also confirmed by another official officer. The tattoos also need maintenance, which means that every couple of years the identification papers need to be confirmed and updated.
An example of a tattoo is the age tattoos which is usually denoted by circles around the index finger on the right hand. 9-year-olds have one circle on their finger and 18-year-olds have two.
The only tattoos that are required by law are the age tattoo and the "season of one's birth" tattoo. All other tattoos are optional.
Cost
Everyone is required to have gotten their first tattoo and their identification papers at the age of 9. If a person can not afford to pay for the tattoo and the papers themselves they can petition the government to have them pay for it. People might try to cheat the government but they will later regret it when they realize that everyone who has petitioned the government for money ends up on a watch list.
Artists
While the required tattoos are simple and should not be embellished there are other tattoos that are artistic in nature, and even though these are also added to the identification papers they are allowed to be intricate.
There are many famous artists on Bittra and there are many people who are upset that the island is still closed up for outside casual visitors.
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