Tattoos being used as an aether focus

I keep being told that this was stated in lore somewhere, or answered by Koji Fox himself, but I cannot for the life of me find out where. Does anyone know where this is referenced?

I don't know about direct statement of tattoos specifically but aetherically conductive inks are what allow Scholars, Summoners, and Arcanists to channel through their books so it's logically sound that this could apply to tattoos as well.

That'd be a really neat character concept. Assuming channeling aether actually through one's skin like that didn't kill you, of course.

It was either mentioned in the Lore Panel and or this mention in Vol 2.
https://i.imgur.com/EYxG8DT.jpg

Here's this lore panel image. I didn't take notes but uh. Yeah!
https://i.imgur.com/VT0Wlc8.jpg

A+ citation work. <single tear>

I guess the topic first came up because someone asked about the tattoos you get when you wear the lv 70 mnk outfit and Koji had said those were drawn/made with the same enchanted ink used to make sch/smn books. So as the TDLR from the lore panel tattoos can help one channel their aether. I do wonder about the few other tops that also give our characters tattoos work in the same way. If not the facial paint choices also are effected.

From the 2018 Las Vegas Fanfest Lore Panel, Between Two Fernes:

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Q: Koji, two years ago now you spoke to someone from my FC about channeling aether through ink in one's body and the potential for arcanima formula via tattoos.

MCKF: Alright, you're using the highly aetherially conductive ink that you use for creating books and things like that. That’s what it is. Those types of tattoos actually exist. We actually see some in the game already. The Monks’ Pacifist gear, you get like a body paint on your arms, and that’s using that type of aetherially conductive ink. That’s used to guide and channel aether from around you to do those super-powerful actions and assists in those monk attacks. So this actually exists already. We actually talk about this in the second lore book, so this is definitely confirmed.

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You can find the rest of the Q&A section of the panel here.
Hope this helps!

The Summoner AF3 armor uses it too. Or at least, they paint arcane geometries on their skin for various reasons... Here's some of the stuff from Lore Book 2.

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Originally Posted by Summoner Form & Function

Aside from the horn, summoner garments resemble those of other mages, lengthy and seeping--though they are unique in leaving some portions of skin uncovered. Y'mhitra of the Sons of Saint Coinach asserts that this preference is in fact practical, enabling the summoner to better absorb the essences of the primals he confronts. And while gaps in the one's raiments do reduce overall defense, it could be argued those who dedicate themselves to harnessing primals' power for their own are not, at any rate, innately inclined to an excess of caution.

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Yes, you read that right. Summoners don't like having a lot of "stuff" between them and the ather they absorb when they kill primals so they purposely fight half naked. And if that doesn't make sense, killing a primal to use its powers is a huge risk as it is. What's one more? Or, summoners are probably half-crazy already. If they were saner, they wouldn't be summoners. And would use conventional mage robes.

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Originally Posted by Channeler's Vest

This daring vest protects only the heart, leaving the upper arms and stomach exposed. The dearth of fabric makes it impossible to stitch arcane geometries as one might on a robe, so the arcanist compensates by painting one on his skin directly.

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So you don't have to go so far as using aetheric ink in tattoos for it to work. Using it like normal body paint works just fine.

I'm not sure if that was ever a thing. That being said, sounds like a cool idea!

I think we just unlocked a few rp options for some people. If at least acceptable reasons for glamour useage.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

I think we just unlocked a few rp options for some people. If at least acceptable reasons for glamour useage.

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Here's hoping it leads to expanded character customisation. We've had a lot of people - myself included - asking for more options along the lines of tattoos for years now, so having a solid lore reason to cite will be an immense help.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Here's hoping it leads to expanded character customisation. We've had a lot of people - myself included - asking for more options along the lines of tattoos for years now, so having a solid lore reason to cite will be an immense help.

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I 100% agree. Though I think it is very unlikely. We have been asking for more character creation options for years and it just doesn't seem to be something they are interested in offering us at the time being. I do agree there are other things in game that deserve more of their time than this, but this would be a fun quality of life addition that I'm sure A LOT of people would take advantage of.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

So you don't have to go so far as using aetheric ink in tattoos for it to work. Using it like normal body paint works just fine.

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I guess it's a question of priorities. Tattoos are of course permanent, and if used to represent particular spells, always ready to use. Body paint is temporary and needs time to prepare - but then you're not stuck with it the rest of the time, and also could potentially "swap in" different spells for different purposes. (And of course from a game-lore perspective, serves to explain why you don't still have the markings when you change gear!)

Also, from the lorebook quote...

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summoner garments resemble those of other mages, lengthy and seeping--though they are unique in leaving some portions of skin uncovered.

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Someone please show that to the white mage costume designers next time they try to give me underwear as "leg gear". ;_;

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Also, from the lorebook quote...



Someone please show that to the white mage costume designers next time they try to give me underwear as "leg gear". ;_;

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Sadly that seems to only be a problem with the female set. Heck guys also don't get the fin/fan/frill thing at the back of the top that clips into everything. Not that anyone would know we were even wearing it even if it was the length of one of the mini skirts from the other sets as the top is juuust long enough in the front to cover it up.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Sadly that seems to only be a problem with the female set. Heck guys also don't get the fin/fan/frill thing at the back of the top that clips into everything. Not that anyone would know we were even wearing it even if it was the length of one of the mini skirts from the other sets as the top is juuust long enough in the front to cover it up.

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That fan collar absolutely ruins the dress. Otherwise I really like the look of it (and it worked really well with a long skirt under it) but the fan just clips horizontally through Aurelie's hair and it looks horrendous.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen people wearing it. I wonder if they'd ever contemplate going back and changing it? (Or releasing a second version of the gear without it??? And a second version of the astrologian gear that looks like the male tunic with the pretty embroidery. It would just about convince me to slog through Eureka for those two items....)

And yeah, it's definitely only a problem with the female set. I have a male alt character so I get to see both versions of the gear, and the female versions lose out on some nice pants on a few of the relic gear sets.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

That fan collar absolutely ruins the dress. Otherwise I really like the look of it (and it worked really well with a long skirt under it) but the fan just clips horizontally through Aurelie's hair and it looks horrendous.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen people wearing it. I wonder if they'd ever contemplate going back and changing it? (Or releasing a second version of the gear without it??? And a second version of the astrologian gear that looks like the male tunic with the pretty embroidery. It would just about convince me to slog through Eureka for those two items....)

And yeah, it's definitely only a problem with the female set. I have a male alt character so I get to see both versions of the gear, and the female versions lose out on some nice pants on a few of the relic gear sets.

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Oh I know they do with a lot of the sets. Heck to try and stay on track of the topic of tattoos there're I think only two tops that females can were that come with sleve tattoos. I'm not sure but I do think the female version of the lv 70 monk jse doesn't even give females the tattoo? It's been awhile since I've seen the top on a female character. Yes, I am completely aware that males don't have as nice of a selection of "good" glamours vs us ladies. BUUUT the rare times we don't it's always crap like this. I mean it could be worse and be like the female ninja pants bs in XI where almost every single shorts or slacks on males were made to look like black underwear covered by fishnet sown together chaps.

The tattoos on the AF3 MNK armor would right over the female's breasts. For obvious reasons, that area is covered up by crop top on the female armor.

The tattoos on the AF3 SMN armor are on the stomach, arm, back and legs, so thosexarw shown for both genders.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

The tattoos on the AF3 MNK armor would right over the female's breasts. For obvious reasons, that area is covered up by crop top on the female armor.

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So theoretically we could say they still have it, but it's covered up? Or would you just embroider the design onto the fabric in that case? I wonder if it would make a difference to how effectively it channels aether? Probably not, or all the mages would be doing it instead of using embroidered robes.

Then again - if the patterns channel aether then a smart enemy is going to try to damage them to disable the mage's spellcasting, and you've got more chance of getting out of the battle intact if they only need to target your clothing...

Doesn't Sharlayan do this a lot? There's those Circle of Knowing tattoos...

Those aren't just Circle of Knowing tattoos. Those are Archon marks. It's kinda like getting a tattoo of your Master's degree once you get it. Papalymo fakes Yda's on Lyse. As far as we know, they don't do anything special.