Nyx in the House of Night

artwork.
    Other than certain technological and hygienic advances (antiseptics, disposable needles and inkpots, use of an autoclave to sterilize equipment), the actual tattooing process hasn’t really changed that much. Puncturing the dermis with a needle, the artist leaves behind a small dot of insoluble ink. That process, repeated over and over, forms the tattoo. People describe the pain in varying ways, from a pinprick to an intense sunburn. As the skin over the tattoo heals it goes through a molting process, which requires some care to keep the mark from becoming infected. Once healed, depending on its location and its exposure to sunlight and wear, it should remain intact for the remainder of the owner’s life.
    Though body art was once confined to certain subcultures (gangs, bikers, sailors, circus performers, and other social rebels), it has branched out into the entertainment industry (Angelina Jolie, Cher, and David Beckham, to name a few actors who proudly sport ink). Now going mainstream, one of the fastest-rowing segments of the tattoo industry is suburban, middle-class women. And according to a Pew Research Center survey, over a third of eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds have at least one tattoo. Between the ages of twenty-six and forty? Forty percent.
    Though much about tattoos has changed over the years, some aspects have remained constant. Over the ages skin art has been employed as a form of protection, to ensure health, to commemorate a special event, as an indication of rank or status, as a social statement, or as a declaration of religious faith.
    Which brings us to the tattoos in the House of Night series.
Skin as Canvas
W hat compels a tattoo artist to choose skin as her medium? Jenny Bunny Bunns, who blogs about her life as a tattoo artist on her website TheInkBunnyDiaries.com, says, “On the creative side, this medium fascinated me because it’s art on living skin. Instead of a two-dimensional paper or canvas, I’m working with something that breathes, talks, sweats, stinks (or smells good), moves, etc. It’s a challenge in and of itself!” She adds, “My art becomes a part of a living, thinking, feeling being with a life of his/her own. Perhaps on a spiritual level, there is some kind of bond between client and artist.” Nyx would approve!
    VAMPS HAVE IT THEIR OWN WAY
    Unlike Zoey and her fellow fledglings, we make a conscious decision to be tattooed, even if that decision is made under the influence of fermented beverages. We choose the tattoo’s content and placement, as well as when and how we receive it. But in other ways the vampyre tattoos of the House of Night series are very much like ours and serve many of the same functions as they have in the human community, but with a few twists all their own.
    In the House of Night series, the tattoo-like Marks are a natural part of becoming a vampyre and appear to be biological in nature. According to Dick Cast (P.C.’s father, who taught high school biology and helped develop the scientific reasoning behind the vampyres’ Change), rampant hormonal changes trigger a recessive gene in certain teenagers’ bodies. That gene sets in motion a cascade effect of physical symptoms, including increased T-cell production, which in turn destroys the host’s capillaries, causing lethal respiratory complications. The series does not explain why the Mark appears in reaction to this biological change, so we are left to speculate on that matter. Is it purely biological? Or is it also mystical, a gift from Nyx?
    Vampyre tattoos, unlike ours, aren’t static. When a vampyre completes the Change, additional designs are added to the original crescent moon of the Mark. Marks occasionally disappear, reappear, or are altered during the course of the series, but always for compelling reasons. When Stevie Ray rejects the Change in Betrayed and dies, she returns to life as something entirely different. When she regains her humanity in Chosen and Changes into an adult vampyre, her tattoo becomes something different, as well. Her Mark is described as a “beautiful pattern of tattoos made of swirling flowers with long, graceful stems all twined together . . .” which might signify her affinity for Earth. While that is what one would expect for an adult vampyre, the other change is not: those Marks are the “brilliant scarlet of new blood.” The rest of the undead fledglings’ Marks, they discover, have changed color, as well.
    After her soul is shattered