Tattoos that say you're an adult: Lamara's coming of age tradition

Lamara: The Nation of the Gods' Gift Peninsula has a very funky tradition for kids who live to adulthood:

Tattooing them. Where these tattoos are placed varies over time and place within Lamara, as well as just the individuals doing and receiving the tattoos, but regardless these tattoos are meant to indicate the following:

1. Their rights and social position. Slaves (who are branded to mark who owns them as well as tattooed to show that they're slaves. Slaves get this the moment they become slaves, including if they're born slaves, rather than upon becoming adults) get different tattoos from free citizens, and free citizens get different tattoos from nobles and so on. Those who commit crimes, suck up to powerful people or do other things to raise or lower themselves in society will get additional tattoos overlaying their old ones.

2. If they're magic or not, and if so what magic family they're from. Brijilds - The Fire Family and Krysa - Crystal Magic Family get very different tattoos.

3. Their family symbols, being the feminine symbol from their mother (who got it from her mother and so on) and the masculine symbol from their father (who got it from their father and so on). Nobility and royalty will also get their mother's masculine and father's feminine symbols as tracking one's ancestry is considered more important for them.

This isn't done to children simply because people aren't fans of their kids screaming as ink is hammered into their skin and because a lot of kids die before reaching adulthood anyway.

The usual age at which this is done is 15, the age of adulthood in Lamara, and the ceremony is done every year - different days in different areas as it's done by a priestly order that is constantly travelling around Lamara and doing these tattoos - on mass to lots of kids. It's believed to bring good luck and fertility to get married the day after getting your tattoos, so a lot of marriages are done on mass the next day.

History

After Jioctal Lamarans were added to the Lamaran Empire, it was decided that they would be punished firstly for resisting Krysa rule for too long and secondly for interbreeding with the Hami (to put it simply: Hami come over in massive invasion going "hurr durr we takin' yo land" then the Jioctal King goes "I will let you settle and make your own towns with your own laws if you fight alongside my warriors against the Krysa who are trying to take this land and wouldn't let you settle on it" and the Hami reply with "hurr durr that is a brilliant deal lessgo").

In order to ensure this punishment was administered to the right people and that Jioctal Lamarans and their new Hami neighbors couldn't just move somewhere else within Lamara to avoid punishment, they were given tattoos to mark them as undesirables. Hami, who are still considered undesirables to this day, were treated more harshly than Jioctal Lamarans due to Lamaran religious beliefs ("Lamara for Lamarans", basically, but with the belief that all non-Lamarans are being punished for the sins of their ancestors by not living in Lamara) and initially even subjected to attempted genocide.

Some generations later, however, things were increasingly hard to track but a magical thing, albeit not exactly a good thing, happened: a Lamaran Monarch and the Lamaran Head of Faith (both have to be Krysa - Crystal Magic Family and the Monarch appoints the new Head of Faith while the Head of Faith has to approve of the new Monarch or the one in line after them gets the throne and so on) were getting along extremely well rather than the usual state of begrudgingly putting up with the other's existence.

They agreed to spread the use of tattoos upon reaching adulthood across the entirety of Lamaran society. Tattoos for reaching adulthood were already being given out in various ways across the Lamaran Empire and nobility were deliberately using the most expensive possible inks for their tattoos, so the main roadbump was that this was the whole "making core parts of a person's identity visible for all to see" thing.

It took 43 years and was almost undone when a new Monarch came to power, assassinated the Head of Faith and was going to reverse it alongside their new Head of Faith but themselves got assassinated via a baby being thrown at them while they were on a balcony, but it was done.

And since then it's been a thing with all its pros, like it being easier for you, wonderful noble, to know if the filthy drunk person touching your expensive clothes asking directions is just a commoner you can freely have your guards beat senseless or a fellow noble on a bender that you're obligated to help.

A con would be that having it visible for all to see whether or not you're in a magic family is a nightmare when random people start coming up to you asking you to piss in a cup cos they think magic piss will cure their syphilis or whatever weirdness some drunk priest spouted to too many people this time.

Execution

First the kids gather in the temple and are told some stuff by the temple's priest about their religion and the greatness of Lamara, then they form a line.

The kids line up, walk up to the traveling Priest of Kamusha (god of art, including tattoos), get their tattoos, walk past the line of other waiting kids out the temple's front entrance and join in some festivities celebrating their official adulthood.

Observance

It's every year but what time of year will be different from place to place. Priests of Kamusha travel on a strict yearly journey to do all the tattoos for a small area. Some priests will temporarily become priests of Kamusha to do the rites.