Hi there everyone! I'm making an Aberrant Sorcerer build and was thinking about making a tatoo their arcane focus. Their backstory is that when they were young, they were traveling in a caravan with their family when they were attacked by duergar raiders and taken to the Underdark as slaves. The exposure of the Underdark and its dark magic is how they attained their powers, aka their Sorcerous Origin. While enslaved and held captive in the Underdark, my character prays to a specific deity for help and the deity answers; providing the means for my character to escape. 

Afterwards, my character becomes a big worshipper of this deity and feels basically indebted to them for their escape. While trying to find a way to control and utilize their powers (aka finding a suitable arcane focus), they decide that they want to use the symbol of this deity as their arcane focus. Very similar to clerics and paladins, I know, but instead of using an emblem or amulet, they decide to get a tatoo with design being the symbols, colors, and imagery associated with this deity. This wouldn't be a small tattoo; it would be one that would cover their torso (front and back) and all their limbs; making it harder to conceal and the character distinct in appearance. This would also possibly make them a target for enemies and those who oppose the worship of this deity and its followers. 

I'm aware that one of the rules of an arcane focus is that it is something that can be lost or damaged in some way that disables the character in using their magic. My idea is that if the tattoo is signifcantly damaged (like a huge gash or burn, loss of a limb, or in severe circumstances: flaying) this would be how it would be disabled. As for how the arcane focus would be recovered, being healed or possibly using Mending to restore it would be the solution. Or perhaps having the tattoo redone by a cleric or priest who worships the deity. They still would have to have one hand free when fighting to utilize the focus, as per the rules. Maybe the tattoo even glows when being used, again drawing attention to it. 

What do you guys think? Is it a viable option, without being too overpowered or too complicated? What is your reasoning? And if you have fun or unique ideas for a different arcane focus, I'd love to hear it! 

Thank you!

As you point out, focuses can typically be lost or dropped. There are ways, by RAW, to disarm someone, it can be confiscated by the authorities, etc. but there are no rules for scarring or otherwise disfiguring. Do, you’d be asking your DM to homebrew some kind of mechanic to make it work.
I mean, it almost never happens that someone actually tries to disarm anyone, let alone a caster. But the tattoos make it do that’s not even an option. Strictly speaking, and hypothetically speaking, they would be more powerful than any other arcane focus, owing to that ability. But it comes up so rarely that it probably wouldn’t matter.

So, ask your DM. If it were me, I don’t know what I’d say.

Keep it simple: to work, the tattoo must be uncovered.

I would allow it. Tattoo ink can be super special for magical tats, and one could even force it to each spell needs a tat, etc.

technically, all my clerics are tattooed with their holy symbol, though, so I may be a bad choice…

It is up tothe dm but it is significantly better than RAW. As Xaltho pointed out you can not lose or drop your focus. Having a monster cast command to drop your focus is no longer an option for them. On top of that all arcane foci (unlike some cleric foci) are held in the hand. You sorcerer can hold something in one hand and use the other for casting semantic spells even if they do hot have a material component..

With DM approuval everything can work i once has a wizard's spellbook tattooed all over the body.

Quote from CinnamonTrashPanda >>

Hi there everyone! I'm making an Aberrant Sorcerer build and was thinking about making a tatoo their arcane focus. Their backstory is that when they were young, they were traveling in a caravan with their family when they were attacked by duergar raiders and taken to the Underdark as slaves. The exposure of the Underdark and its dark magic is how they attained their powers, aka their Sorcerous Origin. While enslaved and held captive in the Underdark, my character prays to a specific deity for help and the deity answers; providing the means for my character to escape. 

Afterwards, my character becomes a big worshipper of this deity and feels basically indebted to them for their escape. While trying to find a way to control and utilize their powers (aka finding a suitable arcane focus), they decide that they want to use the symbol of this deity as their arcane focus. Very similar to clerics and paladins, I know, but instead of using an emblem or amulet, they decide to get a tatoo with design being the symbols, colors, and imagery associated with this deity. This wouldn't be a small tattoo; it would be one that would cover their torso (front and back) and all their limbs; making it harder to conceal and the character distinct in appearance. This would also possibly make them a target for enemies and those who oppose the worship of this deity and its followers. 

I'm aware that one of the rules of an arcane focus is that it is something that can be lost or damaged in some way that disables the character in using their magic. My idea is that if the tattoo is signifcantly damaged (like a huge gash or burn, loss of a limb, or in severe circumstances: flaying) this would be how it would be disabled. As for how the arcane focus would be recovered, being healed or possibly using Mending to restore it would be the solution. Or perhaps having the tattoo redone by a cleric or priest who worships the deity. They still would have to have one hand free when fighting to utilize the focus, as per the rules. Maybe the tattoo even glows when being used, again drawing attention to it. 

What do you guys think? Is it a viable option, without being too overpowered or too complicated? What is your reasoning? And if you have fun or unique ideas for a different arcane focus, I'd love to hear it! 

Thank you!

You might want to take a look at the Runechild sorcerer subclass from the Tal'Dorei Reborn book, which [EDIT] is apparently now available on DDB? It would be very easy to reskin as tattoos. That might an easier sell to a DM than a focus that isn't an actual droppable item

That said, like AEDorsey I've played a cleric with tattoos that channeled their divine energy through ink -- my guy wore a breastplate and had full sleeve tattoos -- but it was in a couple one-shots that were pretty far from being crunchy rules-stickler kind of games

I would assume it wouldn't matter. Most DM's only tell you no to stuff that is overpowered or just ridiculuosly uneeded. I usually tell my pc's no to that sort of stuff. if it's cool I'll allow it but Nerf it a little bit if its OP if it's ridiculously uneeded then ill let them have it. But yeah It should not matter. Only a crapy DM would tell you know to something that could be cool. Might put some restrictions but will probably allow it.

If this is just a straightforward dungeon crawl campaign, there aren’t any major issues with the concept, although for the sake of game balance I’d suggest leaving one hand empty unless you’re hold a wand or staff or something else that likewise qualifies as a focus. If the DM prefers a more cinematic game where the party being taken captive is on the table, the concept becomes more problematic. As much as some people advocate for Rule of Cool, this is a hard system so to a certain degree players are required to make their concepts conform to what is allowed within that system, with the DM having final say. Most likely if you’re not actively looking to use this as an exploit and it won’t mess up the DM’s plans they should be okay with it. Just in reply to one of the above points, this is pushing far enough away from RAW that I wouldn’t call out a DM for not going along with it.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

If this is just a straightforward dungeon crawl campaign, there aren’t any major issues with the concept, although for the sake of game balance I’d suggest leaving one hand empty unless you’re hold a wand or staff or something else that likewise qualifies as a focus. If the DM prefers a more cinematic game where the party being taken captive is on the table, the concept becomes more problematic. As much as some people advocate for Rule of Cool, this is a hard system so to a certain degree players are required to make their concepts conform to what is allowed within that system, with the DM having final say. Most likely if you’re not actively looking to use this as an exploit and it won’t mess up the DM’s plans they should be okay with it. Just in reply to one of the above points, this is pushing far enough away from RAW that I wouldn’t call out a DM for not going along with it.

 I mean either way it mostly never goes along to the DM's Notes so.......