Ambiguous Name: Tattoo As Character Type

Problem #1: The trope's name implies that it's "tattoo signifies character type", when the description itself is actually broader than that, covering character types, Back Story, affiliation with particular organizations/groups, and more.

Problem #2: At two months old, it only has 7 wicks, and 4 inbounds. Definitely not thriving.

Proposal: The trope's intent appears to be that it's supposed to be 1) a trope for tattoos with plot/character-relevent meaningfulness; and 2) a Super-Trope to Power Tattoo, Embarrassing Tattoo, Tattooed Crook, and any future tattoo-centric trope. I suggest renaming the trope to something more indicative, like Meaningful Tattoo or Expository Tattoo.

On a side-note, parts of the description are written as if the trope only covers tattoos indicating a character's past affiliations/background, and excludes tattoos indicating present affiliations/etc. Is there any objection to tweak those parts to remove such exclusiveness?

edited 28th Feb '12 4:21:26 AM by MarqFJA

Meaningful Tattoo as a supertrope for all tattoo related tropes sounds about right to me. I support that rename. The current name does seem a bit confusing.

No objection to the proposed tweak that present affiliations count too. Supertropes should be inclusive.

edited 28th Feb '12 8:38:28 AM by shimaspawn

You know, it just occurred to me: Does "tattoo" in tropespeak/fictionspeak/mediaspeak include sci-fi/fantasy methods of placing/getting permanent body markings (e.g. a magical curse leaving an unremovable "brand" on a particular body part), or is it limited to Real Life-style tattooing methods?

edited 28th Feb '12 9:16:58 AM by MarqFJA

I think anything that approximates a tattoo is a tattoo even if magic sticks it on your skin.

The description needs...more..specifics maybe? I mean, there's the Yakuza tattoo, the gang tattoo, and the cliche biker tattoo and that's one group..

And this is the supertrope to all of them. The description needs less specifics to be a supertrope. All of them count for this trope. That doesn't mean that more specific subtropes can't be made though.

edited 28th Feb '12 10:36:53 AM by shimaspawn

"Can't be made", you mean.

Fixed. Stupid typo.

I think much of the pseudo-analysis of "what type and where means what" needs to go. Large chunks of it are both vastly oversimplified, and more properly belong on subtropes.

Agreed. This needs fewer specifics.

This looks like a mishmash of subtropes into a supertrope. It might benefit from splitting.

I think it needs to be a supertrope, but it's rather pregnant at the moment and someone needs to go take it's children to the YKTTW.

How about shunting the "pseudo-analysis" to the discussion page, so that we can cross-check it later on for potential subtrope-splitting after we hammer out a proper description for Meaningful Tattoo?

edited 28th Feb '12 11:36:45 AM by MarqFJA

Sounds good for now.

That sounds good.

I was the one to launch the trope and I agree the whole thing is pretty complicated. Basically the idea started when I realized that a visual shorthand to show that someone is a thug is by giving them a neck tattoo (specifically the Burn Notice example). Then I thought of the Batman Beyond example with Terry's mother having a "college days" ankle tattoo, and then the Burn Notice Military Tattoo example and everything just snowballed from there.

Normally I am in favor of lumping tropes together but basically I stumbled across at least 12 different tropes under one rather loose idea (tattoo styles and tatto locations signifying a character type), and I simply don't have the attention span to try to YKTTW all of them. It took me like three days, being easily distrated, to get the single YKTTW completed. Almost every bullet point in that analysis could probably be made into its' own trope.

As for the name, I have a hard time seeing someone mistaking it that the tattoo itself is a character. No one really had a good alternative to offer in the YKTTW (Meaningful Tattoo would mean the tattoo itself signifies something important like being The Chosen One or like Military Tattoos, both would be subtropes to the larger idea), but if someone has a better idea here then lets go for it.

edited 28th Feb '12 9:45:09 PM by KJMackley

I think "personality trait" might work better than "character type". Character type tends to refer to their role in the story. While it's useful, not all of it fits in there, like the college days ankle tattoo.

But "personality trait" does not cover "personal history" or "affiliations".

So it's "Significant Tattoo"

How about making the definition something like:

" Sometimes a tattoo is just subdermal ink. But sometimes it carries a lot more information about the character sporting it, due to its placement, content, or style. These tattoos are Significant Tattoos.

Some tats are almost always significant when they show up in fiction, regardless of whether they have the same significance in Real Life:

• The "tramp stamp" or "California license plate" on a female — a usually wedge-shaped tat on the small of the back, which draws attention to her butt and doesn't usually show unless she's wearing very low pants — rarely appears on a character who isn't <I don't quite know how to phrase it - slutty or easy, sexually>

• and so on

Bumping and clocking.

Locking due to inactivity.