You don't need a tattoo to quicken things on people. You can use magical quickening materials to increase the difficulty to remove a quickened spell, but you don't have to do that.

That being said, a Nanotatt would be of essentially no assistance in quickening spells. But you could put down some quickening materials and then layer a nanotatt on top of it if you really wanted to.

-Frank

Small correction: the rules for telesma state it has to be an inanimate object.

Since Quickening is a prerequisite for Anchoring and the processes of creating a quickened and anchored spell are similar, you could make a case for Anchoring materials (or extending Quickening materials for such a use). However, given that anchoring already possesses a specific metamagic enchantment, I would probably rule against it in my games.

If some GMs do approve of "Anchoring Materials," I would remind them that they should follow the same restrictions as using Quickening materials, and would not be combinable with anchoring foci.

This is actually a misconception; under the current rules there is no limit to the number of quickened spells a character can be subject to at one time, and there are no requirements on the size of the tattoo/ritual scar/brand.

There's a dwarf tattoo artist in Runner Havens who is a mage and does the quickened spells himself, but I think most GMs would probably allow a mage to do have someone else do the actual tattooing under the mage's supervision. It doesn't affect game balance, anyway.

No.

Ah, the perennial question: how much for an intangible? The answer: whatever the market will bear. At the very least, I'd suggest 3d6 x 100 per point of karma spent - and that's just for the spell. You'd also have to cover costs for the materials and the tattooing.

hm. i was never really happy with the skin-coverage limit... but i'm not sure no limit is a good solution, either.

in MitS, it was 5k/point.

Well, if you're going to bother using quickening materials, you'd really want to pay for 15 Karma to get the most out of it.

Anyway, that's for the Karma (actually based on the old cash-for-karma rule); the materials actually cost 5,000 (re: gear tables in the back of Street Magic). The cost for the tattoo itself depends on the size, complexity, and skill of the artist in question - traditional art forms (probably preferred) will be more expensive and harder to find, but will probably look better and less likely to be ruined. Prison tats bought for drugs smuggled in your colon are less likely to be as good.

Last, there's finding a magician with Quickening and the spell you want willing to do the job - and that is definitely going to cost you. (Minimum of Force x 1000 )

The cheesy answer would be "compare the results to the equivalent cyberware." But of course most sustained spells are not as comparable. Really, it's up to the GM as part of the cash vs. karma balance of the game. Getting in tight with the oyabun or magical society that practices the technique can be the set-up for a proper adventure.

There is, but it requires some dedication. If you have the Extended Masking metamagic technique, then you can disguise spells and foci in the same way that you disguise your own aura. That lets you pass them through wards when you fake your aura to be the same as the ward's creator.

So although this is very good, you've paid two metamagic techniques for it (Extended Masking has Masking as a pre-requisite), and a third if you're quickening your own spells. You'll be a level three initiate without centering before you can pull this off.

Spirits with Aura Masking can do it too, but there's nothing in the books to suggest that they could apply the power to someone other than themselves. Also, Aura Masking is very rare. If you could find a friendly Flesh Form Insect Spirit Queen or Mother that was willing to enter into a Power Pact with your character... then you could also do it that way. Good luck!

The rules for fooling wards are in Street Magic.