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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ This is exactly what I had planned to answer, but now I wonder -- what about amputees, birth defects, and the like? Inking the face, or ideally the middle of the back would be more reliable and require fewer decisions. And a change of ink color each year would limit the ability of "protection agencies" to pre-mark people who haven't paid their "insurance". $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 15:58
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    $\begingroup$ @ZeissIkon Why would you pre-mark someone when you could just show up after ration-day and take their ration? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:10
  • $\begingroup$ Why would you make veiled threats to burn down someone's business if they don't pay protection? For control, to ensure they do pay protection, or in this case, to make someone dependent on the "charity" of the criminal organization. "Sorry to hear you missed your copper, but we'll help you out, as long as you do a little something for us from time to time." Changing inks won't eliminate extortion, but it'll make it require a little more effort on the part of the criminals. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:17
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    $\begingroup$ Businesses are a lot less fungible than cash. Much easier to extract cash from someone who just got paid, than from someone who definitely won't get paid. If the goal of an extortion racket is to extract money from a populace you want to make sure that there's money to extract. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:20
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    $\begingroup$ @bukwyrm From the link I provided above, roughly 3 days, on the finger with stains on the nail and cuticle lasting 2-4 weeks, which with WW1 level logistic coordination should be good enough to distribute to every resident of a city state. Remember each citizen only needs to show their hands, get a pre-measured portion of currency, then get marked. This is a very parallelizable process. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 17:23