Tattoo Field

It is possible to introduce tiny, hollow spheres filled with colored particles under the skin, just like the pigments of a regular tattoo. This creates a Tattoo Field, a small area where the skin can act very much like a screen.

Tattoo Fields can be an element of fashion, depending on the culture. It is likely that they will replace lipstick, eyeshadow or minor make-up.

The Tattoo Field must be changed with a special "Tattoo Writer", a device which makes the embedded spheres change colors.

A standard Tattoo Writer looks like a 20th century hand scanner or brush, weighs 1 pound, costs $100 and runs indefinitely off building current. It can write to a field 8'' wide;
Larger Tattoo Fields require bigger Writers, which are not commonly for sale, but available at every tattoo parlor. It is possible to write a large Tattoo with a smaller writer, but the edges can be shoddy.
A Tattoo Blanker that wipes a Tattoo field clean is the size of a pencil, has negligible weight, costs $10 and can do several thousand blankings on an A Cell.
Artists can make their own Tattoos with a "pen" that activates the embedded spheres along the lie of the pens movement (weight negligible, cost $50-500, depending on quality, runs for a year on an A Cell).

All Tattoo Writers except the pen of an artist require some form of graphics file to create an image. Depending on how common Tattoo fields are, software to design such graphics may be anything form free (comes bundled with every computer) or rare, expensive and buggy.

One reprogramming costs $1 for a small patch or $30 for the full body and takes a minute. Some parlors offer free reprogrammings on special occasions. Political groups or companies offer free reprogrammings for anybody who wants to carry their logo for a few days.

A tattoo field can be cleared so that no tattoo is visible, and it can be used to imitate a scar, birthmark or skin condition. A full-body Tattoo field can be used to give a person a different skin color or even a camouflage pattern. Of course, a mere image on the skin is never really convincing.

Tattoo Fields are available from TL9 on cost $10 per square inch. Real full-body Tattoo Fields are feasable at TL10 when the problem of skin breathing is solved. TL9 "full body" jobs must leave a few areas free. The operation to place one is basically painless and not dangerous with TL9 medicine, though this may not apply to jobs done in the back room of some starport bar.

The GM can rule that TL10 Tattoo Fields are linked to the nervous system and can be turned on an off at will, and come with a tiny computer ship implanted under the skin that stores 100 Gigabytes worth of images (the chip costs $300 with operation).

Adventure Ideas

A Character is made an offer to have his Tattoo field reprogrammed for free in same shop. The owner claims it's his birthday, or the festival of the great prophet Humda, or whatever. The Character is told to go to another shop on the next planet (or just across the border) for another free reprogramming. The Character does not know that the Tattoo carries a secret message of some kind. It could be the shape of the Tattoo itself ("This image is a symbol of a Neo-Tong group. It means that blood vengeance has been declared on somebody... I cannot tell you against whom...") or tiny imperfections in the image that can be read by a scanner disguised as a Tattoo Writer.
A Character has his Tattoo Field reprogrammed with some "nice ethnic art" on some planet only to discover that it is a symbol of a religious group suspected of terrorism on the next planet.
Undercover cops will need Tattoo Fields if tattoos have remained fashionable with the criminal element.