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orcbruto — Imperius Lex Tattoos

Published: 2013-07-02 21:46:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 4646; Favourites: 70; Downloads: 88
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Description Like all sailors, space sailors also loves tattoos, and they write whole biographies about themselves in their flesh with ink and needle.

These are the most common motives in tattoos found among the crew in my Dark Heresy campaign spaceship Imperius Lex.

The negative tattoos or the ones that identify someone's crimes are usually made by the Inquisition or arbitrators on captured criminals to better identify them, but some bandits that are proud of being killers, mutants or heretics may tattoo themselves to show their "achievements" to others. As the ship collects prisoners and scum around the galaxy to serve as slaves in the most dangerous and horrible jobs on board (that can't be made by a servitor), some low life in the darkest decks have this marks upon their skin...
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Comments: 11

RemusDeerborn [2015-01-20 03:22:33 +0000 UTC]

This is Really freaking cool dude.....I might have to incorperate tattoos and their meanings into my Dark Heresy Game.
but tell me, what kind of marks do you think someone with ties to a PDF or the Arbites Have; Or were raised in the Schola Progenium?

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orcbruto In reply to RemusDeerborn [2015-01-20 21:20:27 +0000 UTC]

Hummmmmm.... Well... It would probably depend most of their culture and homeworld... 

I can imagine PDF/Arbites from oriental-like planets to have an arm all covered in tattoos, like the japanese Yakuza, or ones from icy places like Vostroya to have tribal tattoos like the old norse and Iceni people... 

Schola Progenium kind of feels a bit like 18th/19th Century Austria + 1930's Nazi Germany... So I would go for some straight lines, two-headed eagles, iron crosses and skulls. I guess a quick look at Google Images about the many symbols and shapes used by the nazis and other's used in napoleonic wars would grant you a lot of inspiration

I kind of got inspired to do this ones by reading about russian jail/mafia tattoos. As the Vostroyans are mostly russians, and a spaceship in W40k is almost a prison... XD

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RemusDeerborn In reply to orcbruto [2015-01-21 22:14:52 +0000 UTC]

I suppose thats how it goes with the Imperium, Either A prisoner, a soldier, a Sheep, a shepherd or a Rogue Trader

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orcbruto In reply to RemusDeerborn [2015-01-22 22:11:11 +0000 UTC]

Yap, and they overlap quite often... XD

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cobo4231 [2013-07-04 13:51:19 +0000 UTC]

This is absolutely amazing. "Warp Witch Thug Life" sounds a bit like a Slanneshi for some reason...

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orcbruto In reply to cobo4231 [2013-07-04 22:48:15 +0000 UTC]

Mwhahahahahhaha
Yap, quite Slanneshi!

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Wargur [2013-07-03 02:05:17 +0000 UTC]

Great designs and solipsism for the tattoos.
Sorry but aren't they suppose to hand over discovered psykers to the Black Ships

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orcbruto In reply to Wargur [2013-07-03 11:25:37 +0000 UTC]

Well, they are... but there is always the excuse about the psyker never arriving alive to the Black Ship

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Dgs-Krieger [2013-07-02 22:49:14 +0000 UTC]

This is very interesting! Good work, Orcbruto! ^^

I like specially the 'born in the warp' one.

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orcbruto In reply to Dgs-Krieger [2013-07-03 11:27:48 +0000 UTC]

Oo In the Warp?! You mean the Anchor? It's for Voidborn (born is space)... someone born in the Warp would surely be a little twisted...

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Dgs-Krieger In reply to orcbruto [2013-07-03 11:54:20 +0000 UTC]

Uh...yeah. Sorry, I was just being a dummy XD

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