#i really should get around to writing that treatise on boiling isles magic i've been meaning to write

[darthkvznblogs]

How dangerous would it be to tattoo glyphs to your body?

Depends! When you're talking about Glyphs, you have to consider a bunch of factors: power source, intent, activation method, and even the material the Glyph is inscribed on.

Obviously, the most common Glyph magic we see is drawn on paper, which is typically consumed as the spell is activated. This is not always the case, though; we see plants sprout from Glyph cards that don't get destroyed, the giant Light Glyph that turns Eda back to normal in ep. 4 doesn't appear to destroy the wall it's drawn on, the same goes for the sleeping nettle smoke spell in Hunting Palismen, and Philip/Belos actually has/had Glyph tattoos that seem intended to keep his cursed form at bay (though presumably they've long since failed, or perhaps that's not even his original body anymore).

The power source is both the easiest and trickiest factor to consider; there's enough ambient magic in the Isles to cast as many Glyphs as you could ever want, but it's obvious that to try it outside the presence of the Titan's remains would have disastrous results.

Intent matters a lot when it comes to Glyphs (and really, magic in general). It gives shape and direction to the spell you're casting - the difference between a fireball and a stream of flame, for example, or between sprouting thorny vines instead of cute flowers. Other magic systems have specific incantations, hand motions, and other such special conditions; Glyphs have the spell circles, combos, and the mental command through which the caster controls the effects of the Glyph/combo.

The idea is that this mental command also extends to the actual casting material - in the heat of battle, you don't usually put any thought as to what happens to the Glyph card as long as it gives you the intended effect, and so, being a pretty fragile material, the ensuing magical reaction incinerates the medium. When it's something more important, like a wall or, in this case, skin, you'd be hard-pressed to keep a tighter rein on your spellcasting, which should ensure minimal or no damage to the medium.

All of this is to say, yes, at least in the context of the Kverse, Glyph tattoos should work, but also yeah, they would be pretty risky. A novice or even adept Glyph caster would absolutely lose at least a few layers of skin, if not the whole limb, even with a minor successful spell. Someone who's mastered Glyph magic could do it without worrying too much, but they'd need to be very careful about having something of the Titan around to fuel the spell - otherwise, the magic would try to consume anything around it as an alternative, which could absolutely prove fatal, and it might not even stop at flesh and bone, when there's a perfectly intact soul attached to the meat sack that could be tried as a substitute. You'd also need to have extremely tight control with something like Fire or Petrification magic, which could easily affect the caster's flesh if not carefully controlled.

It's doable, but in almost all cases, pretty freakin' ill-advised.