Magic Tattoos

Magic Items Explained

#TCoE

Blending magic and artistry with ink and needles, magic tattoos imbue their bearers with wondrous abilities. Magic tattoos are initially bound to magic needles, which transfer their magic to a creature.

Once inscribed on a creature’s body, damage or injury doesn’t impair the tattoo’s function, even if the tattoo is defaced. When applying a magic tattoo, a creature can customize the tattoo’s appearance. A magic tattoo can look like a brand, scarification, a birthmark, patterns of scale, or any other cosmetic alteration.

The rarer a magic tattoo is, the more space it typically occupies on a creature’s skin. The Magic Tattoo Coverage table offers guidelines for how large a given tattoo is.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Absorbing Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), very rare (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo features designs that emphasize one color.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Damage Resistance: While the tattoo is on your skin, you have resistance to a type of damage associated with that color, as shown on the table below. The DM chooses the color or determines it randomly.

Damage Absorption: When you take damage of the chosen type, you can use your reaction to gain immunity against that instance of the damage, and you regain a number of hit points equal to half the damage you would have taken. Once this reaction is used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Barrier Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), rarity varies (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo depicts protective imagery and uses ink that resembles liquid metal.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Protection: While you aren’t wearing armor, the tattoo grants you an Armor Class depending on the tattoo’s rarity, as shown below. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Blood Fury Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), legendary (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo evokes fury in its form and colors.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Bloodthirsty Strikes: The tattoo has 10 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at dawn. While this tattoo is on your skin, you gain the following benefits:

• When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend a charge to deal an extra 4d6 necrotic damage to the target, and you regain a number of hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.
• When a creature you can see damages you, you can expend a charge and use your reaction to make a melee attack against that creature, with advantage on your attack roll.

Coiling Grasp Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), uncommon (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo has long intertwining designs.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Grasping Tendrils: While the tattoo is on your skin, you can, as an action, cause the tattoo to extrude into inky tendrils, which reach for a creature you can see within 15 feet of you. The creature must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or take 3d6 force damage and be grappled by you. As an action, the creature can escape the grapple by succeeding on a DC 14 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. The grapple also ends if you halt it (no action required), if the creature is ever more than 15 feet away from you, or if you use this tattoo on a different creature.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Eldritch Claw Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), uncommon (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo depicts clawlike forms and other jagged shapes.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Magical Strikes: While the tattoo is on your skin, your unarmed strikes are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming immunity and resistance to nonmagical attacks, and you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes.

Eldritch Maul: As a bonus action, you can empower the tattoo for 1 minute. For the duration, each of your melee attacks with a weapon or an unarmed strike can reach a target up to 15 feet away from you, as inky tendrils launch toward the target. In addition, your melee attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit. Once used, this bonus action can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Ghost Step Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), very rare (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this tattoo shifts and wavers on the skin, parts of it appearing blurred.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Ghostly Form: The tattoo has 3 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at dawn. As a bonus action while the tattoo is on your skin, you can expend 1 of the tattoo’s charges to become incorporeal until the end of your next turn. For the duration, you gain the following benefits:

• You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.
• You can’t be grappled or restrained.
• You can move through creatures and solid objects as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn in a solid object, you take 1d10 force damage. If the effect ends while you are inside a solid object, you instead are shunted to the nearest unoccupied space, and you take 1d10 force damage for every 5 feet traveled.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Illuminator's Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), common (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo features beautiful calligraphy, images of writing implements, and the like.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Magical Scribing: While this tattoo is on your skin, you can write with your fingertip as if it were an ink pen that never runs out of ink.

As an action, you can touch a piece of writing up to one page in length and speak a creature’s name. The writing becomes invisible to everyone other than you and the named creature for the next 24 hours. Either of you can dismiss the invisibility by touching the script (no action required). Once used, this action can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Lifewell Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), very rare (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo features symbols of life and rebirth.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Necrotic Resistance: You have resistance to necrotic damage.

Life Ward: When you would be reduced to 0 hit points, you drop to 1 hit point instead. Once used, this property can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Masquerade Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), common (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo appears on your body as whatever you desire.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Fluid Ink: As a bonus action, you can shape the tattoo into any color or pattern and move it to any area of your skin. Whatever form it takes, it is always obviously a tattoo. It can range in size from no smaller than a copper piece to an intricate work of art that covers all your skin.

Disguise Self: As an action, you can use the tattoo to cast the disguise self spell (DC 13 to discern the disguise). Once the spell is cast from the tattoo, it can’t be cast from the tattoo again until the next dawn.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Shadowfell Brand Tattoo

Wondrous item (tattoo), rare (requires attunement)

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo is dark in color and abstract.

Tattoo Attunement: To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process. When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.

If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.

Shadow Essence: You gain darkvision with a range of 60 feet, and you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

Shadowy Defense: When you take damage, you can use your reaction to become insubstantial for a moment, halving the damage you take. Then the reaction can’t be used again until the next sunset.

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Spellwrought Tattoo

Produced by a special needle, this magic tattoo contains a single spell of up to 5th level, wrought on your skin by a magic needle. To use the tattoo, you must hold the needle against your skin and speak the command word. The needle turns into ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin in whatever design you like. Once the tattoo is there, you can cast its spell, requiring no material components. The tattoo glows faintly while you cast the spell and for the spell’s duration. Once the spell ends, the tattoo vanishes from your skin.

The level of the spell in the tattoo determines the spell’s saving throw DC, attack bonus, spellcasting ability modifier, and the tattoo’s rarity, as shown in the Spellwrought Tattoo table.

Spellwrought Tattoo

Magic Tattoo Coverage