[JR585]

I have a question about the Romulans and their shaved heads and tattoos. In the movie, they never explain why, but in the comics, they say that the Romulans shaved their heads and tattooed themselves out of mourning for their home planet that was destroyed by the Supernova.

Let's say that they did shave and tattoo themselves out of mourning. My question: when exactly did they have time to do this?

1) Supernova explodes and destroys Romulus
2) Spock Prime releases red matter, creating black hole
3) Narada goes through black hole first
4) Narada appears next to Kelvin and when the Kelvin is hailed by Ayel asking the captain to come aboard the Narada, Nero and the crew are already shaved and tattooed. This means the entire crew shaved their heads and tattooed themselves in mere seconds after the black hole.



Someone on a different forum suggested that since the Romulans were previously miners, perhaps they were already shaved and tattooed just because it was a cultural occupation thing (similar to how pirates tattoo themselves or people shave their head to go into the military)


Thoughts?

[mmoore]

Nero's wife had tats, too.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Nero%27s_wife.jpg

[NCC-73515]

Okay now that's a contradiction! Didn't notice that!

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

The movie doesn't address it at all. They don't have the ridges that we saw in TNG onward either. I consider it a function of the reboot and don't really look for an in-universe answer to it.

[kevin]

If one accepts the behind the scenes explanation of mourning ritual - then perhaps it would be customary to do it immediately.

There's undoubtedly enough 'time' in there somewhere for it to have been done.

[NCC-73515]

In the comic they did it after the destruction.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

None of which explains why they don't have the ridges. It's a lot easier to just say it's a function of the reboot and just enjoy it. After all, there was no legitimate reason when TNG came around that the Romulans, who looked just like Vulcans, all of a sudden had these weird forehead ridges. If anything, that's weirder than the tattoos these guys have.

[kevin]

The TNG ridges were pretty random. I don't see them being explained anytime soon.

[Quark]

Originally Posted by NCC-73515

In the comic they did it after the destruction.

That's what I go by.

[JR585]

Originally Posted by Quark

That's what I go by.

Any idea how long it was between after the Supernova to when the Narada appears next to the Kelvin?