Mercy Thompson is this baddass book character that's a mechanic and a coyote shape shifter. She's also famous for her tattoos; and a Mercy doll is incomplete with out them! In this part, we talk clothes &, of course, tattoos.



As with her facial paint, my main inspiration for her tattoos come from the comic books. On the novel covers, her tattoos change with each book to reflect the themes of each novel.


In the actual books, though, Mercy's tattoos are nowhere near that extensive. She is described to have basically 3 tattoos:

Coyote pawprint just below her naval ^[MC-199], has a couple on her arms [inferred celtic armbands] ^[MC-199]  - ID Card of Mercedes Thompson

See, very simple. One on her belly, one on each arm.

Its more eye-catching to go really dramatic for a book cover, so I understand the choice. It's what caught my eye, actually!

Iron Kissed was the first Mercy book I saw on the shelf and I found the tattoos intriguing.


The pawprint tattoo is pretty much the same for all the covers that show her belly. Its the only tattoo that's consistant between them.

In the comics, the arm tattoos are depicted as the armbands they actually are.


Really cute, right? I think I might get these one day, I like them that much.


This is the illustration I send Julie Allan, my repainter, when I commissioned her. I liked the red colour in this image. Its a lot of detail for a 12" doll, so I asked if she could caputre the feel of these tattoos, if not all the details. She promised she would.

The design of the pawprint is slightly different between the novel covers and comicbook illustrations.


I wanted the novel pawprint. The shapes felt more natural to me.

As far as the tattoos go, Julie's work exceeded my expectations!

A superb adaptation of the pawprint, don't you think?

Interestingly, Mercy Thompson is a Native American character. When Julie adapted the arm bands, she created what looks like a series of tipis. I was so impressed with this. When I told Julie who Mercy was and what I thought the tattoos looked like, she laughed and said she had no idea. That  made me even more impressed! It was just magic how well and appropiate they came out. Simply magic!

 So here she is all finished and ready for clothes!

Notice the beautiful body blushing!

The face is just what I wanted but it was the tattoos that really turned her into Mercy.

The clothes were really simple to pick after all that. I wanted an outfit that would show off all of the work I had done. At the time, I just happened to have all the pieces to recreate the outfit from the cover of my favourite Mercy book:


Black halter top. Jeans. Plus, a signature necklace (not pictured but from the book).

Clockwise: Barbie Basics #14, Twilight Victoria, Twilight Rosalie necklace close up.

 For her shoes I took inspiration from this illustration:

Gorgeous fanart by jakebilbao on Deviant Art

I thought the combat boot look worked well for Mercy, and Victoria - pictured above - came with boots to suit the jeans!

Which takes me to the last step. Putting them all together....

I messed up the sealant on the left arm. *pout* I'll fix it at some point.

She looked so good in this outfit, I haven't considered taking her out of it since.

One day, I might go for a raven black reroot and add the feather earrings she is often pictured with. I'm a little scared to do the reroot; I don't want to mess up her face paint. The longer I've had her though the more I've felt the need to give her a more Mercy-like hairdo. The feather earrings will probably be added eventually. And maybe the leather bracelets from the comics... or a fingerless glove like the Silver Borne cover... The final details have yet to be decided, obviously. :S

But that's her for now!

I have more dolls in this collection to go through. None that needed as much work as Mercy and some that are still on going. I'll get to them all eventually.

Later. ;D

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Tattoo close up photos by Julie Allen.