Riza Hawkeye and her Burns
We all know that Riza has a large tattoo on her back that holds the key to flame alchemy, put there by her father, and revealed to Roy by her. We also all know that it is the reason that Roy knows flame alchemy. In addition, we know that she asked Roy to burn it off of her back, to deface her back so that no one could learn flame alchemy again. And he did, at least part of it.
But let’s look into these burns a bit more.
The tattoo itself stretches over her upper and lower back. It’s large, detailed, and very specific. It obviously took a lot of time to do. Additionally, seeing as her father would want the tattoo to last, as it was the culmination of his research, he would have made sure that the ink wasn’t going to run or fade. That ink is placed firmly. Tattoos also go under the skin, which is going to be important to remember in a bit.
Body surface area is roughly estimated using something called the rules of nines. Basically the surface area can be estimated by dividing the body into areas of 9%. The upper back is one area, and the lower back another. This would mean that her tattoo–if I’m understanding this correctly–covers roughly 18% of her body.
From what I’ve managed to discover through some basic research, it would take at least a second degree burn to burn through and obscure a tattoo. But even that seems iffy, so it seems to be that it might even require a third degree burn to be sure that the tattoo is completely gone. A first degree burn would do nothing for it. The skin had three layers to it. The epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer. Tattoos are put in on the dermis layer, the second layer. A first degree burn only touches the epidermis, which would not effect the tattoo. A second degree burn effects the epidermis and part of the dermis, which means it would touch the tattoo, but it might not completely do the job. A third degree burn destroys the epidermis and dermis and may go into the subcutaneous layer as well. This would, without a doubt, destroy the tattoo.
Second degree burns cause the skin to be read and to blister and may be sore. They typically heal withing three weeks, often without scarring but with changes to the pigment of the skin. The worse the blisters are, the longer it takes to heal, and there is a possibility of skin grafting being needed to repair the damage.
Third degree burns can be waxy and white in color, or a dark brown color, char, and be raised and leathery. Blister may not develop. Without surgery these burns will heal with severe scarring and contracture (permanent shortening of a muscle or joint). They also carry the most risk. Infection, blood loss, shock, tetanus, and sepsis are risks with all burns, but the risks are higher with third degree burns. Hypothermia (low body temperature) and hypovolemia (low blood volume) are also possibly complications of severe burns. They so can hurt, but at the same time, they don’t always because of nerve damage that has occurred do to the burns.
Please keep in mind that the skin is the body’s first protective layer and very important. It provides protection from things getting into our bodies, a but it also keeps things such as blood, water, moisture in our bodies and helps to regulate our body temperature. This is one reason that burns can be so dangerous. Even with survival of the initial burning the body’s ability to protect and regulate itself is impacted. In fact, the severity of burns on a person’s life is not only determined by the depth and type of burn, but the amount of skin it damages. If 20% of the body’s surface area is damaged, IV fluids are required. 30% or more and the burns can be fatal without treatment.
So what does all of this mean for Riza and her burns?
Looking at the little we see of her tattoo and the burns I believe that most of those burns are third degree. They’ve always looked raised to me, and, in the anime, you can see some slight shadowing on the edge, indicated a sense of depth there. That would indicate scaring, not just discoloration. They’re also similar to the scars in look that we see on Edward for his automail. This leads me to believe that what is on her back are scars and not discoloration. For the scars to form like that, she would have had to have third degree burns. Third degree burns would also have completely destroyed the parts of the tattoo that they were over, which is what she was aiming for.
Third degree burns should require medical attention. Everything I’ve read says that and doesn’t even offer suggestions for treating them at home. Of course, she wouldn’t have been willing to go to the hospital. I suspect that she and Roy prepared as best they could ahead of time for this, so that they could care for her themselves, dangerous and stupid though that was. Fortunately, although the burns are large, Roy did not burn her whole back. At 18% body surface area, and with third degree burns, that likely would have killed her. As it was, it was probably a very slow and painful healing process.
Additionally, while we like to pretend that Roy and Riza were the only ones that knew about this whole thing, I’m not certain that they could have kept it a secret. Third degree burns do require care. Most of the time a skin graft is required or at least highly recommended. This decreases healing time, lessens the risk factors, and leads to less scarring and constricture. Considering that medical technology in FMA is already crazy advanced (i.e. Automail), and considering that Amestris is almost always at war with someone (and war often leads to medical advancements), I don’t think that it’s too far fetched to assume that skin grafting is something that is commonly done for burns in hospitals.
Considering all of this, I think that they probably had to bring in a doctor to help Riza recover. I’m not sure she could have on her own. It would be someone trusted, obviously, but I think that a doctor’s care would have been required (Perhaps Dr. Knox? Or someone else?). Still, even with that, Riza’s recovery would have been long and painful, probably taking weeks. I doubt that they called the doctor in at first, so you can probably slap some more healing time on there because of that. I think she was probably also left with some issues from it all, such as that area feeling at least a little tighter all of the time, and being able to feel less or nothing on it because of destroyed nerve endings.
In short, looking at the scarring, the amount, and the depth of the burns, I believe that Riza had third degree burns on her back. I also believe that, given the depth and surface area of the burns, a doctor had to be called in to help her heal from the burns. It was a long and painful process for her, and for Roy too, emotionally, and caused some complications that extended even until today.
