Tattoos

Tattoos are mundane or magical ink embedded within the skin of a creature. There are a variety of styles, inks and specialty tools that are used when creating tattoos. Just about anyone with proficiency in Tattooist's Tools can apply a mundane tattoo for a person, but it takes a gifted magic user to make the most out of the magical inks available.  

Prerequisite

Getting a magical tattoo is a painful process and takes time to imbue the magic into your body, which if done improperly or too fast, can cause serious unwanted side effects. Starting at 5th level you may receive 1 tattoo of up to medium power, you can gain another tattoo at 10th level of up to high power, you can gain one more at 15th level of up to high power, and again at 20th level you can gain one more tattoo of up to high power. You must wait at least one month between each tattoo to allow your body time to balance out the magic that has been placed on you. You may receive only one high power tattoo.  

Tattooist's Tools

This kit comes in a sturdy leather satchel of some description and contains a variety of various coloured inks, needles, and medical supplies needed for sterilization. The kit may also include a sketchbook filled with original tattoo designs, or magical templates that the artist may find on their journey.   Tattooist's Tools are needed to create any tattoos, weather they have magical properties or not. Each set initially contains a variety of ink colours, but does not include any specialty inks from the specialty inks table.   As you create tattoos, you will use up the supplies in your tool kit, which will need to be replaced every so often. Every small tattoo uses 1 ounce of ink, Medium tattoos take 2 ounces, and large tattoos take 4 ounces.   Each colour of ink costs more or less depending on the dye used to make the colour. Purple, for example, is the most expensive colour as minerals and plants that produce appropriate coloured dyes are harder to find and acquire than other dyes.  

Creating Tattoos

Magical tattoo templates are often crafted by masters of their arts, which are few and far between. Finding drawings and schematics for magical tattoos can be a difficult task, as such pieces of art are exceedingly rare. Some of the most powerful tattoos come from personal inspiration, these class of tattoos are often self administered with unique ink which can yield special effects. When a character wishes to draw a tattoo onto either themselves or another creature, they must follow the rules below.  

Tattoo Application

There are many variables that go into applying a tattoo which must be taken into account before choosing to apply one to the skin. Such variables include the size of the tattoo, the intricacy of the tattoo, the cleanliness of the procedure and the time that the procedure takes.  

Tattoo Size

In order to apply a tattoo of any type, there must be room to draw it into the skin. Every tattoo has a size and location. Every creature only has so much space on their bodies to draw tattoos and are so limited in the number they can possess. The scale of a tattoo adjusts depending on the size of the creature it is being applied to. Because of this, a Large chest tattoo would take up the same space on a human, a Halfling, or a giant, as the size of the tattoo stays proportional to the size of the creature it is applied to.   The amount of tattoos allowed on a creature are as follows:  

Body Part	Number of Tattoos
Head	1 medium tattoo, or 2 small tattoos
Chest	1 large tattoo, or 2 medium tattoos, or 4 small tattoos
Back	1 large tattoo, or 2 medium tattoos, or 4 small tattoos
Arm	1 medium tattoo, or 2 small tattoos
Leg	1 medium tattoo, or 2 small tattoos

  If allowed, tails, or wings, may also be tattooed, given that they are not covered in feathers, fur, or scales and are a sufficient size. They count as an arm or leg-sized body part.  

Time to Apply

Tattoos take time to apply based on their size and intricacy. A large but simple tattoo may take the same amount of time as it would to create a small but detailed one. Sessions may be broken into chunks of 4 hours per Short Rest. Use the following table to determine how long the procedure will take.  

Size (intricacy)	Time
Small (simple)	1+1d4 hours
Small (average), Medium (simple)	2+1d6 hours
Small (ornate), Medium (average), Large (simple)	4+1d8 hours
Medium (ornate), Large (average)	6+3d6 hours
Large (ornate)	8+3d10 hours

   

Risk of Disease

Even with sterile tools, there is still a chance of disease from being tattooed. The creature receiving a tattoo must make a Constitution Saving Throw, the DC of which depends on how sterile the procedure was.  

Cleanliness	Constitution save DC
Appropriate medical supplies used	5
Improvised medical supplies used	10
Poorly improvised medical supplies used	12
No sterilization	15
Actively unsanitary	20

  If a disease is contracted, the GM decides what disease it will be by either choosing one from pages 256-257 of the Dungeon Master's Guide or another appropriate source. Once the tattoo is applied successfully, the tattooed creature may utilize the effects of their new tattoo after their next Long Rest.  

Specialty Inks

In very large cities, it may be possible to acquire rare and unique inks with which one may create tattoos. These inks may have special cosmetic or inherent magical properties and are generally very expensive.  

Detection Ink

This ink is specially mixed and imbued with the ability to detect the presence of certain creatures. The ink may come in a variety of colours, and begins to faintly glow when within 100 feet of the creature in question. For example, an ink may be mixed in order to detect members of the goblinoid family, in which case it would be referred to as ink of goblinkind detection. Another ink may be imbued with the ability to detect the presence of undead, or even a specific type of undead (zombies, liches, vampires, Etc).  

Elemental Ink

This ink is purely cosmetic in most circumstances, coming in a variety of elemental styles. Some may make the lines of a tattoo appear to burn like molten lava, while others may cause it to appear as if cool water flows through the lines of the subject's skin. Certain earth-aligned inks will cause the lines of a tattoo to appear as if they were filled with glimmering gemstones. If an appropriate elemental ink is aligned with a specific tattoo, it may amplify the effects of such a tattoo. For example, a tattoo of the frozen fist would become much stronger if drawn using ice aligned ink.  

Glamor Ink

This ink causes lines drawn with it to glitter like a thousand stars. These inks come in a variety of colours.  

Glow Ink

Tattoos inked with this concoction are pale versions of their colours while in the light, but in dim or dark conditions glow vibrantly with their appropriate colour. A Large tattoo created with glow ink sheds dim light in a 5 foot radius.  

Metallic Ink

Tattoos made with this ink make it appear as though the subject has organically-flexible metal inlays embedded in their skin. These inks come in a variety of colours, from gold to silver to rusty iron.  

Mood Ink

While appearing as plain grey ink in a bottle, once applied to the subject, this ink changes colour depending on the subject's mood.  

Mood	Colour
Anger, Irritation	Red
Nervous, Fearful	Orange
Surprised, Shocked	Yellow
Disgusted, Repulsed	Green
Sad, Depressed	Blue
Happy, Infatuated	Purple

 

Prismatic Ink

Appearing to be a swirling mass of rainbow colours while in a bottle, this ink causes lines tattooed with it to become a beautiful and iridescent in appearance.  

Shifting Ink

One of the rarest and most prized inks among tattooist, shifting ink allows the subject possessing the tattoo to switch between two different tattoos. Artists will often take this ink whenever they can find it, regardless of whatever colour they happen to find it in. In order for this ink to display its true power, they must first have one tattoo made with shifting ink. Then, they must use the ink's power to shift the ink through their skin, leaving the spot bare once more. A second tattoo is then made in the same spot and of the same size. Once this is done the subject has the ability to switch between two different tattoos every Short Rest and therefore change their given magical effects.  

Temporary Ink

This ink appears as normal black ink, only it is applied to top of the skin with a thin brush. Tattoos made with this ink last up to one week or until they are washed away with water.  

Three-Dimensional Ink

This ink comes in the same standard variety or colours as normal ink. When applied to a subject the ink appears normal. However, the one who wears a tattoo made with this ink may take a Bonus Action in order to create a stunning cosmetic effect in which the design of the tattoo appears to float off their skin and hover above it. While this effect is active the tattoo may also slightly, spinning, or curling around the body part on which it is printed.  

Additional Information

Magical tattoos as well as non-magical tattoos should be recorded for future reference in order to quickly check whether a character has room for a new tattoo. Unless specifically noted under the tattoo description, a given tattoo can only be taken once. Any additional applications of the same tattoo will not apply any magical effects. Magical tattoos radiate magic dimly under a detect magic spell. A successful DC 20 Arcana check may be made in order to discern the nature of a magical tattoo. If the person trying to identify the tattoo already has proficiency in Tattooist's Tools, they gain a +2 bonus to identification. Dispel Magic will render magical tattoos useless for 1d4 rounds. If the body part which a magic tattoo is on is lost, so are its magical effects. Limbs regrown with magic or other wise do not come back with their tattoos. Spells such as raise dead generally keep the tattoos intact, given that the limb is still present. Reincarnation will not bring the subject back with their tattoos intact. Clones made with the clone spell do not have tattoos.  

Tattooist Supplies

 

Item	Cost	Weight
Tattooist's Tools	70gp	5lbs
Purple Ink	15gp
Blue Ink	6gp
Green Ink	1gp
Yellow Ink	3gp
Orange Ink	3gp
Red Ink	7gp
Black Ink	10gp
White Ink	10gp
Full Ink Set	50gp	1lb
Needle Set	5gp	2lbs
Medical Supplies	15gp	2lbs

 

Specialty Inks

 

Item	Cost	Weight
Detection Ink	1000gp
Elemental Ink	100gp
Glamor Ink	100gp
Glow Ink	100gp
Metallic Ink	100gp
Mood Ink	150gp
Prismatic Ink	50gp
Shifting Ink	5000gp
Temporary Ink	50gp
Three-Dimensional Ink	200gp

  (Note that all inks listed come in 1 ounce bottles)  

Tattoo Costs

When determining the cost of a tattoo in a standard magic game, remember that tattoos do count towards the number of attuned items you can have at one time. On average low power tattoos should cost around 2000 gp, medium 5000 gp, and high powered 15000 gp. Remember that changing the cost or availability based on how your character play is a valid strategy to help push more powerful effects to later levels.   When using anything but standard inks, a general rule is to increase the cost of the tattoo by 10% if the ink will have no additional effect on the tattoo, and increase it by 25-50% if the ink will add additional effects to the tattoo.  

Feats

Inked

Prerequisite: Constitution 13 or Higher You really enjoy the look and feeling of having tattoos. You may now take an additional 2 tattoos, one of which may be a high power.  

Tattoo Compendium

• Eye of Darkvision
• Eye of Truesight
• Mark of the Ranger
• Mark of the Warrior
• Mark of the Bull
• Mark of the Child
• Mark of the Dryad
• Mark of the Elvenkind
• Mark of the Ghast
• Mark of the Hummingbird
• Mark of the Pit Fiend
• Mark of the Telepathy
• Maw of the Dragon
• Spirit Walker's Sigil
• Tattoo of Chilling
• Tattoo of Flame
• Tattoo of Leaping
• Tattoo of Minor Protection
• Tattoo of Major Protection
• Tattoo of Striding
• Venom Ward
• Wings of Ink
• Tattoo of Ability
• Tattoo of Skill
• Tattoo of Iron
• Tattoo of the Blazing Sun
• Tattoo of the Shining Moon
• Tattoo of Unrestricted Strength
• Tattoo of Dreams