[horatio]

Indeed, they have no tattoos. I think that the comic gives a good reason for the tattoos as some kind of grief or revenge ritual but as Nero's wife has them as well this doesn't work in sync with the movie.
Clearly the writers didn't think much about it. I don't think that the tattoos have any direct connection to Dath Maul but rather an indirect one. Just like Darth Maul's devilish face the tattoos make the Romulans easily recognizable villains. To paraphrase Picard, villains who put nasty tattoos on their faces are easy to spot.

[JR585]

Originally Posted by horatio

Indeed, they have no tattoos. I think that the comic gives a good reason for the tattoos as some kind of grief or revenge ritual but as Nero's wife has them as well this doesn't work in sync with the movie.
Clearly the writers didn't think much about it. I don't think that the tattoos have any direct connection to Dath Maul but rather an indirect one. Just like Darth Maul's devilish face the tattoos make the Romulans easily recognizable villains. To paraphrase Picard, villains who put nasty tattoos on their faces are easy to spot.

Are you sure those aren't Vulcans?

[mmoore]

I'm sure that they are Vulcans.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unnamed...(24th_century)

These two Vulcans were part of the Vulcan Council in 2387 and agreed that Spock should pilot the Jellyfish and fire the red matter into the supernova to save Romulus. (Star Trek)

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I thought they were Vulcans.

[horatio]

I promised the Romulans that I would save their planet. We outfitted our fastest ship.

The movie is pretty ambiguous at this point as the fellows we quickly see during the mindmeld could refer to either the former or the latter. I choose to believe that not every Romulan runs around with those stupid tattoos but perhaps they are indeed born with them, making them hyperliteral Tattoomulans.
By the way, I don't think that the idea of Romulans with tattoos is principally wrong as they also paint their ships. But these actual tattoos didn't look like birds of prey in any way and together with the shaven heads the new Romulans appear like dumb brutes which is kind of antithetical to the general idea from all Trek incarnations that Romulans are intelligent and cunning warriors.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I wonder if we will see more Romulans in the sequel, perhaps military or government types?

[NCC-73515]

They stand in the great hall of the Vulcan Science Academy

[horatio]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

I wonder if we will see more Romulans in the sequel, perhaps military or government types?

I doubt that we'll see another story centered on Romulans or Vulcans unless they are just background characters like e.g. the Romulans in TFF and TUC or a character like Sarek.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

I wonder if we will see more Romulans in the sequel, perhaps military or government types?

As long as they aren't the Female Romulan Commander............why not.

But I don't expect civilian Romulans to behave in quite the same way as organised military types anyway so within the context of the film, since Nero is not military, he isn't beholden to act in entirely the same way.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

Originally Posted by horatio

I doubt that we'll see another story centered on Romulans or Vulcans unless they are just background characters like e.g. the Romulans in TFF and TUC or a character like Sarek.

That's what I'm thinking, we might see a few background characters