A couple things I know about pins, needles and spines:
Most of the defensive spines grown by creatures and plants are barbed to make them more painful and hard to pull out. So a cactus spine or porcupine quill's usefulness for tattooing probably only attracts the aforementioned Char-un, who want tattooing to be as painful as possible.
In pre-industrial times, pin and needle making was a typical punishment for misbehaving apprentice smiths. Making them is hard, boring and easy to mess up at the very end of the process.
I wouldn't be surprised to see obsidian and flint tattoo needles in use. Both can be much sharper than bronze. Of course they're much more brittle.
Mike Dawson
Powered by hypermail