Throne of the Fallen

Tattoos are a recurrent motif throughout the narrative, and each of the characters’ tattoos symbolically reflects aspects of their identities. In Camilla’s case, her glamour tattoo is symbolic of her loss of personhood, as it attests to how her parents used her as a pawn within their twisted games. The tattoo is originally created and placed by her mother to hide Camilla’s powers and her Unseelie origins while she was a child. Later, in a theatrical display of ownership, her father Lennox slashes through the tattoo to reveal her as an Unseelie princess in front of Envy, thereby creating a rift between them. Camilla’s glamour tattoo, which has allowed her a human life in Waverly Green and the possibility of returning to that life after she helps Envy, becomes a point of contention between her and Envy, as it covers the secret that she kept from him. After its removal, Camilla is left unmoored—she can no longer pretend to be a human but her time in the human world has made her unfit for the Wild Court.

In contrast, Envy’s tattoos proclaim his identity rather than obscure it. They attest to his identity, even the parts of it that he isn’t proud of.