In this post, I write a respond to feedback I was given for my concept in a conversationalist way.

Feedback:

If you didn’t know already (and maybe you do) this is a fan fiction trope, i.e. the tattoo appearing on skin happens a lot, so some research into this area would serve you well. The juice of world would seem to come from conflict around tattoos being forced, not chosen, and I would have liked to hear more about exactly what that does to the citizens of your world. Also, a question: if ink can appear, can ink just disappear one day? And what does that mean? Could that be a turning point for a character?- Michelle Melky.

Response:

I don’t read fan fiction and thus had no idea of this trope.I actually couldn’t find an example of where this has been used in fan fiction and thus had a hard time looking further into the idea as a trope, but I trust that Michelle has seen it before. Hearing that it is a commonly used idea disheartened me slightly, however I did some research and from what I did find (in films, not fan fiction) that it hasn’t been used to produce the dynamic I aim to create. 

I am interested in what tattoos mean to their wearer, and have been investigating further into this idea. I have been watching movies such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento (a film in which the protagonist uses tattoos to remind himself of events in order to hunt down a man who wronged him), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (a film in which the protagonist is both fierce yet mysterious, like her tattoo symbolises) and reading both Roald Dahl stories and about Maori tattooing rituals to get a better idea of the significance behind tattoos and how that would change in a world where everybody has them. The main idea behind my screenplay is to ask; what if? What if you could tell if someone was a criminal from the ink on their face? What if a man found a portrait of another man inked onto his wife’s skin? What if first dates were easier because you could literally read a person and start conversation from that. There are so many questions, and my screenplay aims to plant the seeds of questioning in the mind of the audience. 

In terms of the “juice” of the world, I aim to get it from many factors, the conflict around tattoos being forced and not chosen, yes, but also how being a human canvas effects relationships, a person’s perception of themselves versus how they are seen by others, the limitations put on the characters by “inking”, nature versus nurture and many more. Ink cannot disappear, unless it is removed-It can fade over time as certain moments, actions, character traits or events lose their significance, but never completely evaporate.

I am very grateful for Michelle’s feedback and am excited to make my way through the list of films I have discovered that use body modification/tattooing as a central theme or characterisation technique. In conclusion, I will continue to delve deeper into this topic however I believe my screenplay is original, and I will do my best to keep it that way by adding more unique interior logic and characters.