Young men and a lesser number of young women, pre- and post-initiation, all looking for romance and adventure and stray herds of magic bulls, but mostly putting up with stupid lambs, casually vexatious alynx, endless cloud watching and the uncertain tempers of equally bored neighbours.
After a few weeks of cow pat throwing and staff fighting, crude tattooing starts to look positively intellectual.
These tattoos are rough and amateur, done with soot and carved bone and knife pinpricks. The designs will be mainly animal figures, decorative geometric designs and perhaps facial and body colouring but will NOT be of a sacred nature.
Proper, elaborate sacred tattoos describing clan affiliation, adult status and perhaps the runes of cultic allegiance are cut as part of initiation and post initiation. Its partially the equivalent of, 'if you find this young layout doing something really stoopid, please return to Clan Strongbow by Slimy Trout Falls.' As noted by others, these skills are probably subtended in Devotee or clan leadership skills - they're part and parcel of what's required for initiating men and women.
I personally believe tattooing is just as important for women as for men, just that they're more sensible about it, and more likely to seek out a priestess/artisan/devotee that have their age mates scratch out a 'kinda like an alynx, but I slipped' tat by a shieling campfire with a caved sheep's bone and fatty soot.
I'd also suggest that there are strong clan, tribal and regional styles, so that its not that difficult to identify a Kheldon or Tovtaros or Pavis County exile by the marks on their face and arms.
Both sexes will add tats as their life progresses, as spell matrices, status and cultic marks. A tat can be just as powerful a social indicator as a gold torc, iron blade, copper key or bronze cooking pot.
Cheers
John
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