Hey, David. I already said my piece re: how awesome you are in the fanmail, so here are the questions, one ask at a time. :) -- Question 1:I know this might not be your area necessarily, but is there any insight you can give us on grounder tattoos? Like - Do they mean anything? Do they have to be earned? Are they chosen for themselves? Etc. Literally any insight you might be able to offer would be amazing.
This is the type of thing that I don’t have any input on. Also, some of them are tattoos, but some of them are just make-up and/or mud. Like the stuff around Lexa’s eyes is makeup, not tattooing (in-universe, I mean). She can remove it all. We saw that in her introduction, when Lexa was pretending to be someone else. I think of that more as war paint. As for the actual tattoos, I’m not sure, but they look cool! Tattooing in general is not something you need a lot of technology to do. The more advanced you are the less likely the thing is to get infected, I’m sure, but tattoos are as old as dirt. It could be a personal thing, where people just do it cause they like it, or it could have a function. That, though, is a writer question, and is not something I had any input on.