Batok Tattoo Needles

Batok tattoo needles are simple tools traditionally made from flexible wood or bamboo with a citrus thorn attached to the end with rattan. Batok tattoo artists use ashes as a pigment and rhythmically tap the needle into their client's skin with another stick.

Batok tattoo artists originated in the mountains of the Talin Islands. They dispersed with the Talino diaspora throughout the lands touching the Talinian Ocean. Used to living either on the seas or high in the mountains, the Talino highlanders gravitated to the Red Mountains when they arrived in Krosia.

Among the Mountain Jakar, descended from a mix of diasporic highland Talinos and Jakar, the art of Batok was once only passed from male masters to male students. At one point, the art only lived in one male artist. The only worthy student he could find was a woman, Lavina Matias. She learned the art and brought it back from extinction. She only taught it to women and since then, it has become an art practiced only by women.

Magic Tattoos

Lavina's most famous student was her neice, Melosa Metias, the first Red Feather Battlemaster. Melosa took the art of Batok tattoing and infused it with magic.

Melosa acquired the ashes of a phoenix for the tattoos Lavina tapped into her skin. Form that day forward, the golden tattoos on Melosa's skin would glow with fiery power whenever she used magic.

Tattoos of the Sun by Sin Posadas