Ink stinks.

[mafdet]

Enough with the tattooed HP characters already! There are some characters who I can see having a tattoo or two - Charlie, for instance, had a dragon tattoo in After the End, which suited him just fine as he works with dragons. Might I add, AtE didn't depict Charlie as an angsty-wangsty Gawth Boy either

Comments

[millieweasley]

I have to admit that I love Charlie with a dragon tattoo *drools and becomes incoherent at thought...*

I do however agree with the general statement in your rant. Everyone is not going to have tattoos and Harry, Draco, Ginny, Hermione or Ron for instance will probably not be getting tattoos in the near future - it is not in their character

*wanders of to dream about Charlie's tattoo some more....*

[plaidpooka]

I think tattoos making sense in fanfic depends on how it is written. I can see your point about the DE, I doubt they would be in any hurry to get an addition to the one they have to sport. Nor would I be interested in lengthy odes to a character’s tattoo complete with description and artistic metaphors which describe in great detail exactly why so-and-so chose that particular piece of art. However, I think just about anyone in Potterverse could have a tattoo. I myself have one and I am not Goth, a rebelling teen, or a hottie. I’m an extremely average almost 40 yr old woman with a tattoo. I’m like Molly Weasley with a tattoo! What I mean to say is that a wide variety of folks get tattoos for a wide variety or reasons. If a writer does it without making it bog down the plot with lavish descriptions, then I would probably buy it. However, I expect wizards could easily charm a tattoo on if it appealed to them and charm it back off if they lost interest.
I wonder if Wizarding tattoos move? Now that would be cool.

[mafdet]

I'm inked, too. :) And I'm around your age. So I know that tattoos aren't just the domain of the young and "cool" crowd. I just hate when they're thrown around in fanfic like Mary Sue's wardrobe; nor do I like it when authors decide that a character HAS to have a tattoo for no other reason than "it's fashionable and it looks good." I doubt Harry is going to return to Hogwarts in his sixth year sporting a cute little hippogriff on his shoulderblade.

[_cheshire]

Personally, I love those fics where good characters such as Harry or Hermione are captured by Death Eaters and branded with the Dark Mark as a symbol of their captivity* and then are forced to be willing little sex slaves. Because Death Eaters would just brand everyone they capture with their secret society's badge. Y'know, because that's not obvious AT ALL.

* I blame these fics for my overwhelming desire for a Dark Mark tattoo. Stupid cliche!

[_cheshire]

What I don't understand is why the sex slave invariably ends up thinking their new tattoo is actually kind of sexy in an evil way.

Maybe it's a side effect of all that kinky sex...

[pufftmg]

At first, I read this post and thought you were being serious. *shame-faced*

But I don't get sarcasm very often in real-life either, so it's hardly a surprise.

--

To comment on the post.

I don't have a problem with characters having tattoos in stories. That in itself doesn't make me want to stick forks in my eyes. Descriptions - long descriptions - about said tattoos are another thing entirely. But I think that falls down to whether or not the writer is good (or even passable) in the first place.

Then again, I can recall one story I read (that I really like) where one of my favourite characters sported a tattoo and a silly outfit for the night and it just threw me out. So, I guess that shows that it doesn't always work that way.

[anonymous]

and yet the Hermione tattoo is becoming very popular. Another one for the "why?" basket (along with the all singing, all dancing, martial arts doing, circus performer). OK, I made the last one up.

[t0ra_chan]

Something about fanfic tattoos that always bothers me is that they're so damn complicated. Mary Sues, for example, never have a simple rose, tribal, yin yang or dragon tattoo, oh no. It's always some complicated master piece like a pentagram that has a dragon curled around it and having blood drip from it and having it surrounded by black roses that are on fire. Having such a complicated tattoo would probably take way more space than just a biceps or shoulder blade.

[_cheshire]

Yes, and be bloody expensive to boot. And probably harder to care for, and yadda yadda yadda...

Personally, I'd like to see a fic where there's an actual thought process concerning tattoos, rather than "Hey! That's a pretty unicorn! I'm gonna get it permanently etched onto my arm!"

[cspinks]

Or a fic in which the reason they have a symbolic firey blaze tattooed on their shoulder is not because they are a conspicuous Fire Elemental but because they got dead drunk one night and accepted a dare.

Or in which they're permanently marked with Chinese writing that they think means something profound, but actually means 'crispy duck plus extra prawn crackers FREE'.

[gillieweed]

"No MSG"