Intergalactic Summit

Mr. Blake, please excuse me, but what are you doing now is the same as what minmatars do when they say something against slavery in the Empire. That was my main argument against minmatar rhetorics, that they try to change the culture of Amarr from the outside, while Amarr doesn't intervene this way into Republic's culture.

If you will insist on your words and this course of action, unfortunately, I won't be able to stand on your side in these discussions anymore.

Sounds like I hit a nerve.

Whatever good things we can say about the Seven Tribes, we must not forget that our regular tribesman is still a human being. Being human beings, it is given that some of them just desperately wishes to be special.

These sort of people will latch onto their Voluval as their identity and revolve their existence around it, if said Voluval has some kind of auspicious meaning.

So you are going to pretend that there aren't Tribesmen who, upon getting the approval of their elders and acquire their facial tattoos, won't stop ribbing you about it and how it makes them a special snowflake?

Even more so if it turns out to be an auspicious Voluval, because damn, what are the chances man? It just like, show up on my face when I went through my coming-of-age ritual! Damn, I must be someone special!

Them not having a choice in the matter but having it show up on their faces anyway, that really feeds the ego.

The point stands. Some people love to have these tattoos on their faces for the aforementioned purposes. Remember that the original point was about why the Minmatar, and other people, will want tattoos on their faces (to tell you their name, to show you their history at a glance, to announce to the cluster that they are special...).

You are taking my statement as a criticism about our culture when I am criticising the people who misuse said culture.

Life marks do not prevent exaggerations in the boasting. They are vague enough that one can embellish details or link them to something else entirely.

Well, you put that mark on your face, whether you actually earned it or not. Then you wait for someone to come ask you about it.

Then you start beating your own drum.

Of course, many Matari will not find that impressive even in the slightest. Some might. Non-Matari even more likely.

Elmund, I can't in my wildest imagination imagine an actual Matari putting a life mark they never earned on their face. It'd be like... trying to perform cosmetic surgery on your spirit with a rusty cleaver. I will bow out of this conversation, because it's a little too disturbing for my tastes.

A life mark I hadn't earned on my face... it'd be like trying to wear someone else's face over my own.

Voluval marks appear in all sorts of places and there are traditions about what certain marks in certain places are supposed to mean. My mark is over the heart.

Name, clan and rank marks are placed in prescribed places and people that wear ones they aren't entitled to are not looked on kindly in traditional Minmatar society.

The hypothetical RSS covert operative posited by Ms Jenneth might be held to have earned the right to wear "false" marks by having attained the rank of covert operative. It would be a rather controversial idea though.

Well, there is no denying it that despite what tradition dictates, there are Minmatar who do in fact either put life marks they do not earn on themselves or they mislead others about what their life mark represents. People still are people and are still vulnerable to human foibles.

As on the topic of Voluval appearing on one's face, yes, it is undeniable that the possessor has no control whatsoever on where the Voluval is going to appear and what mark it's going to be. However, if the possessor is fortunate enough to get an auspicious mark and said mark shows on a part of the body that is very visible like say, the face, and said possessor LOVES to brag and enjoys the attention, you can definitely expect him to use that Voluval as an excuse to blow his own trumpets.

On the topic of the Cartel, let it be understood that the Cartel do not hold Matari traditions on any high regard. Moreover, Cartel tattoo culture is very different from that of the traditional Matari. Different lines, different symbols, different rules even. I do not know enough details to elaborate further. If they do actually wear traditional Minmatar life marks, much of the time they are meant to serve an agenda or a purpose or an ulterior motive.

In the case of the RSS (Republic Security Services), well, these guys always have a controversial place in Republic society. Half of what they do is actually illegal, while the other half typically skirt the borders of legality. You can definitely expect them to swap out life marks if their assignments makes having those inconvenient.

Do remember that, excepting the Voluval, life marks are still tattoos made using publicly available methods, and can be removed using those same methods. For your traditional Matari, tampering with the life marks is unthinkable. However, do not mistake this to mean that this has never been done.

Even if the life mark is not tampered and is actually rightfully earned, well, people still boast and exaggerate.

Um, just in case this has caused misunderstandings; where I come from, facial tattoos are just for showing who you are, relative to family/clan/subtribe, plus war tattoos. No special-snowflake look-at-my-exciting-life stuff there; those tend to go along the back. (I love the way of tattooing emergency clonings as a "pearl necklace" along your spine that some Thukker on N-DQ came up with and have totally adopted it, for example.)

Also, if of all possible Matari customs you pick Voluval to be the one that is barbaric enough to need immediate eradication, you really do not know enough of our customs.