This installment of All the World's a Stage is the thirty-sixth in a series of roleplaying guides about how to roleplay various aspects of the lore and gaming elements of WoW.

What is inscription anyways? I mean, we all know that it's the newest profession, added in Wrath of the Lich King, and it lets you make these "glyphs" which allow you to modify or improve your various class abilities in interesting ways. In gaming terms all that makes perfect sense, but when it comes to telling a story with your character, there are a lot of details missing.

Technically, a glyph is a character or symbol, like a heiroglyph or a pictograph, which we can see to a certain extent when we click on the glyph and put it into our in-game glyph interface -- it looks pretty cool with all those circles and lines and stuff. But what does it really mean? Are you pasting these symbols into a book of some sort? Are they getting magically tattooed onto your skin somewhere?

And where did inscription come from to begin with? Has it been around in Azeroth all along somehow, or was it some sort of ancient knowledge only discovered recently, around the time in the Warcraft lore when the Wrath of the Lich King begins? If it was discovered, then who discovered it and how? How exactly does a scribe learn these glyphs? Does he or she pore over ancient tomes that haven't been read in thousands of years, trying to decipher ancient texts? Or is the art and magic of it more in the artistic calligraphy of it rather than any difficulty in discovering or interpreting the symbols themselves?

There are far more questions than answers when it comes to roleplaying a scribe, and to a large extent each roleplayer is free to choose his or her own approach. What follows is the just one suggestion as to how you might work out a plausible solution -- please feel free to read it and improve upon it in whatever way you like.

Zeerah wrote in earlier today to send us a pretty awesome addition to our WoW tattoo gallery. They took their love for their class to the next level, and have emblazoned their leg with one of the coolest looking (in my opinion) Druid forms in WoW thus far.

Personally, I think it's a pretty good choice for a tattoo. I don't have a problem with gaming tattoos, but I do think that if you're going to get one, get one that looks awesome (while also meaning something, of course). This one is pretty good I think, not that it's my place to judge. Congratulations on your ink, Zeerah! Looks like they did a pretty good job on it. It's an Alliance Druid form too, which is a plus in my book. I love both factions equally, but we're a little Horde heavy in our gallery, don't you think?

I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of tattoos out there, but that is a nice tattoo -- xstitchfla's son Christopher got it on his arm just recently, and clearly he's flying the Horde flag proudly. It took about five hours to put on there, which seems like it would hurt a lot, but then again, Hordies can take it, right?

Christopher is also headed off to Iraq next year, too, so we wish him the best of luck and hope that he stays safe.

And while we're at it, just what is it with the Horde and WoW tattoos? Seems like every picture we see is of the Orc/Tauren/Troll/Blood Elf/Forsaken variety. Aren't there any Humans, Gnomes or Dwarves out there getting inked up?

The art of roleplaying is like a field of tender soil. You only get something back after you put something in.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. But wait... before we get serious about this new expansion of our relationship, Wrath, there's something you should understand about me: I may be a hunter, druid, rogue, warlock, warrior, shaman, and even a mage, but above and beyond all these things I'm also a roleplayer. Yes, I love all those promises you're making me these days about how wonderful our life together is going to be, but something inside tells me that you don't really understand what I really want. You only understand the part of me that likes to shoot, shred, stun, fear, strike, shock and even blast my pixelated enemies into oblivion. But what about my artistic vision?

Oh sure, I see you smirking. What does artistic vision have to do with "Warcraft," "Wrath," and "Lich King?" ... well, you're forgetting the very first thing that anyone ever sees or hears about you: "World." You may have lots of violence, anger, and nasty enemies, but in the end what you really are is a world, a space, and a stage, where my friends and I can get together and have a good time. This is what you don't understand, Wrath: I'm a person, and I like to have things to do and talk about with other people that don't involve damage, threat, or recovering from damage and threat.

Okay okay, you have a point. It's not like you've ignored this aspect of our relationship completely; I'll give you credit for that. In fact, there are some new non-violent things I'm really looking forward to, which I wouldn't be able to do without you.

So while some of us who've chosen wrinkled, old mugs might not get a rejuvenating facelift (and Undead who don't have jaws will continue to miss them), a lot of customization will be available in the form of new horns for tauren, jewelry, and maybe tattoos. Salthem states the same thing in another thread, saying that there's a lot of development to be done, but that this was the direction they were taking.

The April Fool's prank that Blizzard pulled this year featured the Guitar Hero-inspired Bard class, and pictures of the character had intricate tattoos on both arms. Some early speculation posited that it could be from the new profession Inscription. It could be that the tattoos were just an artist's embellishment for the prank, but it's equally probable that the barber shops in Northrend just might be tattoo parlors, as well.

Sevenfold loves the Horde. Not like "I will die for the Horde! And then switch to Rogue to farm primals for awhile." I mean "is there any way to make my arm bigger so the tattoo will fit?" That's how much he loves the Horde.

I've heard of people getting married at Blizzard conventions or doing outrageous things for Murloc suits, but permanent ink doesn't come out in the wash, if you know what I mean.

This one is just one in the latest of Warcraft ink we've talked about, but I have to throw in my two cents here.

I love the game. I really do. And I have a tattoo, though not Warcraft related, so I understand the passion that moves on to get inked. But I'm not sure I would get a Warcraft themed tattoo. Think about it. Would it have to go next to your Everquest tat? Your Meridian59 piercing? Your picture of your son named Zork?

What about you? Do you love Warcraft so much you would permanently emblazon it on your body? And, if so, why?

While browsing the forums earlier today, I came across this strange yet thought-provoking question in a thread created by Laurelyn.

"I rerolled a BELF Pally and leveled her to 44, however after playing my trim little girl for a month or two I came back to my human paladin only to find the pally I once loved and saw as curvaceous now seems to me .. well significantly over weight.

Will I have the opportunity to perhaps enroll her in a weight loss program when WotLK comes out?"

While I don't think that the human female models in game are anything even remotely close to overweight, it is an interesting question. We've reported on the new ways that WotLK may change your character's appearance in the past. Wouldn't this qualify as just another way to alter your character's appearance?

What do you think? Would you want to make your character more thin (or heavier) if you could?

BodyArt by Cat is providing free body art -- Blizzard themed or otherwise -- at BlizzCon.

There are standard BlizzCon related stencils as pictured above, such as being branded with the Wrath of the Lich King logo as shown above.

While floating through the blogosphere looking for WoW tidbits the other day, I stumbled across a blurb featuring the picture on the above right. It didn't say too much about it, beyond that the girl who had the tattoo played a Tauren Warrior, and that she and her other half had matching tribal Horde symbols done. Now, I should preface this with the fact that I'm no stranger to body art either, having 7 tattoos myself. (all of which are easily hidden -- hooray corporate America) It simply got me wondering just how much WoW ink was out there and what kind of designs people were getting.

Armed with Google, search terms, and rampant curiosity, I set off in the search of World of Warcraft ink and the people behind it.