Tattoos.

[luzerna]

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

Comments

[quarante__deux]

You could do some research on the tattoos (moko) of the Maori culture of New Zealand for some more ideas.
Their tattoos are very intricate, and some quick googling says that they would use chisels made out of albatross bone.

[theeverdream]

Actor Jason Momoa has a tattoo that I *believe* was created in the traditional Maori way.

You can see here and here that the design comes to a fairly fine point.

Here is a capture (closeup) from the Stargate: Atlantis episode "Reunion" (4x03). The actor got the tattoo and the writers wanted to incorporate it into the show. I believe that the method you see here - with someone tapping that upper stone into the "chisel" point below - is either the same as or similar to how Momoa got his tattoo done and/or how Maori tattoos were done.

[ridiculii]

Seconding the Maori tattoos, which is the only thing I could think of while reading your descriptions.

[hollywood666]

Can't help on the old tattoo technology, but about tattoos and wear/fading in general, it's highly significant where on the hands and feet the tattoos will be. A tattoo on the palm of the hand or especially sole of the foot will not hold nearly as well as one on the back/top of the hand or foot.

Also, tattoos don't necessarily fade neatly in a way that retracing them every so often will keep them looking good. Fine lines can bleed wider or blur together over time, which is why even in modern times, a lot of tattoos have thick bold lines with sufficient space between them. An intricate tattoo on a high-wear or high-movement body part stands an especially high chance of blurring. Again how long this takes will depend on location.

Herbs/medications to preserve tattoos... don't know of anything like that even in modern times to be honest. After a tattoo is healed, the only way I know of to preserve it is to keep it out of the sun. In modern times people often put sunblock on them.

[theeverdream]

Many of the ingredients in Bio-oil would most likely help to some degree by themselves to preserve a tattoo as they condition the skin. I am not sure about how non-modern societies would go about extracting something like Vitamin A or E, however.

[lilacsigil]

Any kind of oil will help the skin heal - palm oil contains vitamins A and E.

[graeco_celt]

One thing to bear in mind: periodic re-inking will help with the fading but not with the stretching. The tattoos will still be warped.

But perhaps you could work that into the tattooing practice of your people; the fact that the designs are decided at least partly on the basis of something that will still look okay even once it begins to stretch? You could even vary the type of design that goes on each part of the body, depending on the degree and type of stretching likely to happen there.

I know people (though not nearly enough of them!) who have designed their belly tattoos in a way that it doesn't matter too much if they warp a bit (the stomach being one of the more variable bits of the body in both men and women).

Just a thought.