Tattoos can symbolize many different things, and for many people it becomes a part of your identity and a part of one's journey. In Divergent, tattoos act as road-markers, defining the places that a character has been, the challenges he or she has overcome and any number of things that he or she may want to engrave into their skin for the rest of his or her life. The first time tattoos are mentioned is when Tris is taken in to take a test to determine which faction she is best suited for and her test administrator turns out to be a young Dauntless woman, Tori, with a black and white tattoo of a hawk with a red eye. Roth makes the analysis job easy and has Tori explain it herself, "In some parts of the ancient world, the hawk symbolized the sun. BAck when I got this [tattoo], I figured if I always had the sun on me, I wouldn't be afraid of the dark... Now it reminds me of the fear I've overcome" (Roth 12). Analysis made easy!
Tris herself gets a couple of tattoos herself, including: (A) three flying birds on her collarbone, each of the birds signifying a family member she's left behind to pursue her destiny, (B) the Dauntless seal, signifying her new future, and (C) the Abnegation seal, signifying that she did not change as a person when she switched factions from Abnegation to Dauntless.
Tris's love interest, Four or Tobias, has the most interesting tattoos of all. On his back are inscribed the seals of all four factions, Dauntless and Abnegation being the largest and highest up on his back and Candor, Erudite and Amity being smaller and lower down his back. The fact that he does have each of the faction's emblems inked on his back forms a major tenet of Roth's novel; the tenet entails the importance of preserving every aspect of human nature. The exceedingly faction-based society narrows human nature into five aspects and essentially constricts the humanness of each of the citizens within the society. Tobias proves that his people need not and should not distance themselves based on who they think they should be and he voices his desires, saying "I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind and honest" (Roth 405). His desire to be all of these five characteristics signifies another desire to reunite his people, which is a desire somewhat fulfilled later on in the trilogy.
Tris herself gets a couple of tattoos herself, including: (A) three flying birds on her collarbone, each of the birds signifying a family member she's left behind to pursue her destiny, (B) the Dauntless seal, signifying her new future, and (C) the Abnegation seal, signifying that she did not change as a person when she switched factions from Abnegation to Dauntless.
Tris's love interest, Four or Tobias, has the most interesting tattoos of all. On his back are inscribed the seals of all four factions, Dauntless and Abnegation being the largest and highest up on his back and Candor, Erudite and Amity being smaller and lower down his back. The fact that he does have each of the faction's emblems inked on his back forms a major tenet of Roth's novel; the tenet entails the importance of preserving every aspect of human nature. The exceedingly faction-based society narrows human nature into five aspects and essentially constricts the humanness of each of the citizens within the society. Tobias proves that his people need not and should not distance themselves based on who they think they should be and he voices his desires, saying "I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind and honest" (Roth 405). His desire to be all of these five characteristics signifies another desire to reunite his people, which is a desire somewhat fulfilled later on in the trilogy.