Wicca Teachings: Tattoos For Magic

I was curious to see if anyone else has ever utilized tattoos (or any other kind of body mod) for a ritual or magical purpose.

I personally find them to be extremely useful, and am somewhat surprised that I never hear more regarding their use.

Take into consideration the elements involved in a tattoo.

First, there is a certain amount of pain involved, and pain is always a useful way in which one can attain a trance state for magical workings.

Second, tattooing is basically a personal blood sacrifice, in a sense. There is such a deep mental connection between blood, life and magic that the use of blood appears in almost every system of magic in one form or another, even on a symbolic level. One would think that any symbol designed in blood would take on a particularly high magical significance.

Third, the tattoo basically becomes a living sigil. It becomes a part of the person and partakes of the person's vitality (since it is a part of the skin). It's not something that can be simply "forgotten", since it is always present on the person.

Once created, a tattoo could be activated during a ritual through trance or anointment. Or it could simply have a continual effect on a person.

One would think that there would be more information out there regarding this. (Or perhaps I am just looking in the wrong spots.)

Any thoughts? :)