Tattoos.
I have a fantasy culture that practices heavy tattooing, amongst other body modifications, notably scarification and earlobe stretching/ear gauging/whatever. It's a rite of passage for children to get very intricate henna-like tattoos on their hands, arms and feet when they reach a certain age. These ones are usually the only ones they get nowadays, but in the past the tattoos would cover the legs, entire arms, shoulders, neck and parts of the face (forehead--in place of eyebrows which are burned off--nose, chin, lips on women). I would like to say that the country's technology is somewhere around 16th or 17th century, but it really has no real-world equivalent. A little over a thousand years ago these people fled to the island and brought a whole bunch of medical knowledge and a healing ability to the feuding tribes there. Long story short, they were assimilated, the island was united under one warlord, and it closed its borders forever. Present day, it has a relatively small population with a life expectancy in the cities that rivals modern Japan's, or maybe even surpasses it. However, most other technological areas are very deficient in comparison to real-world standards because of their no-trading policy (the exception being weapons).
The tattoo idea came from the Ainu culture, so I figured even though the designs were fundamentally different, these people would use a tattoo knife similar to the makiri to keep the connection. But the more research I did, the less it seemed to make sense. The Ainu had thick bold tattoos, while mine are similar to mehndi--could a tattoo knife be so precise? What would be a better option? I've also thought about using tebori instead (I know the Ainu are not related to the Japanese! It's just that apparently the technique is just as good or possibly better than the needle machines most people use today) but I couldn't actually find out how old tebori really is, or what traditional needles were made out of. Just a lot of stuff about yakuza tattoos and how the Japanese used to use tattoos to brand criminals. I don't need that.
Also, because the designs are so intricate and the people who get them are so young, I'm guessing that they're going to stretch and lose their shape. How often would these need to be redone? I had it set up so that they would get their initial hand/foot tattoos at eight years old, and every three years until they were twenty the tattoos would be traced over again and more would be added on. (The face tattoos would come with marriage.) Is that plausible? Is it too often/not often enough? What herbs/medications/whatever out there could be used to preserve them? (Google will turn up bio oil and whatnot for this, which I can't use because it's a modern product :/)
Apologies for the long post.
The tattoo idea came from the Ainu culture, so I figured even though the designs were fundamentally different, these people would use a tattoo knife similar to the makiri to keep the connection. But the more research I did, the less it seemed to make sense. The Ainu had thick bold tattoos, while mine are similar to mehndi--could a tattoo knife be so precise? What would be a better option? I've also thought about using tebori instead (I know the Ainu are not related to the Japanese! It's just that apparently the technique is just as good or possibly better than the needle machines most people use today) but I couldn't actually find out how old tebori really is, or what traditional needles were made out of. Just a lot of stuff about yakuza tattoos and how the Japanese used to use tattoos to brand criminals. I don't need that.
Also, because the designs are so intricate and the people who get them are so young, I'm guessing that they're going to stretch and lose their shape. How often would these need to be redone? I had it set up so that they would get their initial hand/foot tattoos at eight years old, and every three years until they were twenty the tattoos would be traced over again and more would be added on. (The face tattoos would come with marriage.) Is that plausible? Is it too often/not often enough? What herbs/medications/whatever out there could be used to preserve them? (Google will turn up bio oil and whatnot for this, which I can't use because it's a modern product :/)
Apologies for the long post.