Tattoo Magic, How does this work? Options

[Fortune]

I've thought about this (it came up in game), and in my opinion neither of those two events would effect the spell. The magic is anchored (not the metamagic) to the tattoo, but is not really limited by it in other ways. I feel that it should take a concerted magical effort to affect the spell.

[tisoz]

I can see that ruling.

I can also see ruling it like a focus being broken. The tattoo is 'broken' so the spell fails. Both had karma invested that is now lost.

[Fortune]

I can understand it being similar to a Focus. I just don't like the idea that a little scratch is all it would take to destroy it. A little scratch wouldn't destroy a ring enchanted as a Sustaining Focus. Now, if the whole tattooed arm was lopped off, then I would definitely rule that the magic was toasted.

[tisoz]

I don't think a scratch would do it either. I was thinking something that seperates the layer of skin were the ink resides. Something deep enough to leave a scar.

[Fortune]

But that's still basically the equivalent of a scratch to an inanimate object. A scratch is something that leaves a mark (scar) on the item. I still don't feel that either a Focus or a Tattoo would lose its magic as a result of this kind of minor injury/mishap.

[tisoz]

I guess it bears asking then, how much damage can a focus take before it doesn't work?

Should a focus have a condition monitor (vehicles and drones do) and it continues to function until it is destroyed? Until it takes half damage?

Can the physical component of a focus be repaired (as a vehicle or drone can be)?

[Fortune]

Add to that the application of Magic. Would the Fix spell repair damage enough to fix a Focus or prevent it losing its Magic? If a scar ruins the Magic of a Tattoo, would a Heal spell remove the scar and thereby prevent that loss?

[tisoz]

Would the heal spell remove the tattoo? Probably not or people would argue it would remove cyber and bio. But then the tattoo didn't cost essence or effect bio index.

Probably giving too many ideas to vindictive GMs.

[edit] Will the Heal spell remove scars? Never had it come up. I've never had a character who was magically healed to 0 boxes of damage get a scar. I never applied scars to partially healed characters either, but I may have to start. I can see scarring being the applied when a character takes a wound effect from deadly damage. [/edit]

[Cain]

Um, guys? You do realize that tattoo quickening can also be done as ritual scarification? In fact, tattooing is a form of deliberately inflicting scar tissue?

How do you scar a scar? I've developed scars on my tattoos, and they still look fine.

[Fortune]

Ritual Scarification still has a specific design. Adding an additional unplanned scar would indeed have an impact on the actual design. Whether it would nullify any Magic is another matter entirely though. I just don't believe that enough damage would be done by a mere scar to ruin the invested Magic.

[sanctusmortis]

There's a Norse legend of someone who got a rune wrong and nearly, IIRC ended the world.

Yeah, small imperfections can be bad in this sort of stuff. I would imagine, though, that an inked tattoo being used for this would be unaffected by any scar that didn't affect the ink- and, as has been mentioned, that is no mean feat.

[Frater Inominatu...]

Could you use tattoo magic to affect non-living items? Like placing Armor on a box, or your armor, and what not?

[tisoz]

That would be the Dikoted metamagic. ;)

[Vaevictis]

You could just argue that in the "tatoo" metamagic, the tatoo is just a ritual mechanism to bind the quickened spell more closely to the target of the spell. In other words, the form of the tattoo isn't what is important, it is merely the presence of the tattoo (or scar) that is important.

That's my understanding anyway. What I would suggest is that simple disfigurement of the tattoo would not suffice to remove the quickened spell. You would need to remove significant portions of the tattoo, definately enough to reduce the surface area covered below the threshold required in mits (100*Force^2), probably more.

In my opinion, at the very least, it would have to be done intentionally, and would be damage on the order of literally skinning that section of the body. Burns to the affected area would not suffice unless they were intentionally applied to remove it; maybe, MAYBE skin grafts would do it.

If I absolutely had to rule on the issue, what I would say is that you cannot remove the tattoo using only mundane means. Someone trying to skin the tattoo off would find that they remove the skin, but the tattoo is magically replaced at a very rapid pace, and that the spell remains in place without change. However, I would say that if someone were to ritually remove the tattoo while someone else magically works at dispelling it, then the spell could be dispelled at the normal force level instead of the tattoo modified 2xForce.