What Lune and Sciel’s tattoos tell us about them
If I’m not mistaken, Lune and Sciel are the only two characters in the game who have tattoos. We don’t know much about these tattoos except for a conversation Sophie has with a man in the Prologue. Thanks to this man we learn that these tattoos are some sort of pictos that are etched with chroma onto the skin. So, the purpose of tattoos is basically to give the person who has them certain powers. By using them, Lune can cast spells, heal people or fly around, and Sciel can use her cards. That would be the practical explanation of their tattoos. But what about the ✨symbolic✨one?
I’ll start by saying that what you are about to read are mostly just theories I came up with because I’m not the kind of person who settles with the “it looks cool” explanation. (Even tho the tattoos do look freaking amazing on them and it would be completely valid if their only purpose was to make Lune and Sciel more interesting and distinctive visually. Long live l’art pour l’art).
Spoilers ahead!
Lune’s golden tattoos
Lune has golden art déco inspired patterns on her left arm and hand and on her legs and feet. The first surface where we can spot similar golden patterns is on her expedition uniform so, that could tell us: the uniform spreads onto her skin too, in a way. There’s no barrier between her and her mission. She has offered even her body to it (a controversial choice, given that the man who speaks with Sophie basically tells her that you have to be “cuckoo” to put pictos on your own body, and Lune has a bUNCH of them).
Now, there’s more. We can see these golden art déco patterns in many other places. They can be found all over the world, from the urban furniture of Lumière to the armors, clothes and bodies of nevrons and mythical creatures like our beloved and cuddly Esquie. However, the place where they shine the most is definitely the Dessendre Manor. That place is fILLED with them. I think that these art déco patterns represent the Dessendre painters and their power over the canvas: they are golden, the color of royalty, and they follow the laws of symmetry and geometry, something that can be interpreted as a symbol of order. And what does all this have to do with Lune?
In order to understand it, let’s get back to the expedition uniforms for a second. The expeditioners take these patterns associated to the Dessendre and use them on the uniforms of their organization. An organization whose purpose is to fight against the Paintress, a Dessendre. Similarly, the expeditioners are learning how to manipulate chroma, the prime matter of their world and source of the power of the Dessendres, in order to use it against their creators. So, Lune’s tattoos could represent the laws of the world that she’s learning to manipulate as a mage.
The black pictos on her face
Her face tattoo is particularly fascinating to me so I might get a bit creative with its interpretation dhgcvchgv I think there’s a very interesting duality to it. First, it’s important to notice that it seems to be centered around the eye. Our eyes allow us to observe, and observation is the base of analysis. All those little black pictos could probably give Lune different abilities that allow her to “scan” things or “see through” them.
Second, the way the lines of pictos fall from her eye, all the way down her throat, remind me of those cartoony exaggerated flows of tears. Tears basically represent intense emotion, something that seems very unlike cold and composed Lune. But the truth is that, as she tells Maelle in the conversation they have at camp after burying Gustave, she learned how to use all her feelings in order to make sure she continues.
So, yes, she’s analytical and distant, but what truly keeps her moving is emotion. She truly believes in what the Expeditions are trying to achieve, so much so that she sacrificed most of her life for it. Could those “tears” also represent the things she’s lost because of her mission?
Speaking of things Lune lost because of her mission. Let’s get to Sciel.
Sciel’s chest tattoo
The fact that Sciel's tattoo is located on her chest could tell us that her chest is where her power comes from. It comes from deep within, intimately linked to her emotions and sensibility. She uses cards and seems to be interested in fortune telling, and she also has a special bond with the sky (remember how her father taught her to talk to the stars), so she probably has a special kind of intuition. She understands things through feeling them, in a way. She feels the world and the people around her, that’s why she’s so perceptive and empathetic.
But she doesn’t only feel the good things. She understands the world is beautiful and terrible at the same time. She’s experienced both the brightest and the darkest of emotions. Experience is the key of Sciel’s knowledge and emotional maturity. Thanks to everything she’s been through, she accepted that life is both darkness and light and that death is an inevitable thing. This acceptance shields her, makes her stronger, like the tattoo on her chest, which resembles some sort of shield.












