Real Name
Eric Gitter
Occupation
Adventurer
Citizenship
U.S.A.
Place of Birth
Unrevealed
Known Relatives
None
Group Affiliation
Formerly X-Men, Young X-Men
Education
Unrevealed
Height
5' 11"
Weight
180 lbs.
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Brown (shaved bald)
Powers
Ink
has no powers of his own. Instead, he had access to a mutant tattoo
artist, Leon Nunez, with the power of granting superpowers to other
beings by tattooing iconic "power symbols" on them, evocative of the
power he wants to bestow. Ink has been shown with the following tattoos
and powers: the tattoo on his right palm in the shape of a biohazard
symbol which causes his victims to become extremely ill; the tattoo on
his left hand gives him super strength. The lines look similar to the
banding on Colossus'
flesh when he transforms, indicating a toughening of Ink's flesh also;
the two lightning bolt tattoos on his head give him telepathy, but this
can be blocked by psi-shields; the tattoos of wings on his back grant
him flight; the "explosive" symbol tattooed on his right bicep allows
him to blow up objects and punch through walls; the Caduceus symbol on
his left hand grants him the power of healing others; the Phoenix symbol
over his eye allows him to produce energies similar to the Phoenix Force.
Abilities
None
Other Info
Eric Gitter was one of the founding members of the "Young X-Men" team formed by Cyclops.
He went by the codename, Ink, due to his many tattoos. Ink was a
loud-mouthed and rude teenager who didn't care what others
thought about him. In fact, when he was getting a tattoo at his tattoo
parlor, two police officers came in and tried to arrest him; however,
Ink fought back by using new bio-hazard tattoo, which made one of the
police officer instantly throw up. Despite this, Eric
was arrested anyway and taken to jail. Not in jail long, Ink was freed
by a guard who turned out to by Cyclops using an
image inducer to hide himself. (To learn about Cyclops, click on his
highlighted name above. Note: Beware of the form-fitting outfit worn by
Emma Frost on Cyclops' bio page.)
Cyclops began recruiting members to his New X-Men, with Ink was one of the recruits. Cyclops took his new team to their former training simulator, the Danger Cave, built by Prodigy.
There he trained Ink and the other members of the New X-Men on their
first mission--to assassinate the latest incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants (which consisted of former New Mutants who had gone rogue). Ink and Blindfold were assigned to the "Blue team" and were sent to apprehend Dani Moonstar.
The two were successful in their
mission; however, just after knocking Moonstar unconscious, Ink then knocked out
his own partner. Ink was paid to deliver both Blindfold and Moonstar to Cyclops,
which he did. However, it was later revealed that this "Cyclops" was actually Donald Pierce
in disguise with an image inducer. Pierce was trying to trick the Young
X-Men into killing the former New Mutants. Upon discovering Pierce's
plan, Ink switched sides and started fighting alongside the former New
Mutants and his team of Young X-Men. They all went to Pierce's hideout,
and eventually were able to subdue him. Unfortunately, during their
mission, Wolf Cub
was killed. This left Ink dealing with his own feelings of guilt over
his involvement. (To lean about the above highlighted teams and/or
characters, just click on their names. Note: Beware of the revealing
outfits worn by those on the New Mutants and Donald Pierce's bio pages.)
Soon after, during the team's next mission, it was
discovered that Ink was not actually a mutant, but just gained powers
through his tattoos by his mutant tattoo artist, Leon Nunez. Ink took
this revelation hard and decided to quit the team.
Now, off on his own and depressed, Ink ended up
getting drunk. He was then attacked by the Hellfire Cult--anti-mutant
activists. However, Ink easily defeats them, and told them that they
were wasting their time because he was not a mutant.
Not too long after this, Cipher
showed up and told Ink that the X-Men were being attacked by the Y-Men
(a group of gang members similarly empowered like Ink by his tattoo
artist) and that they need his help. Ink was hesitant at first, but
eventually decided to help, but goes to his tattoo artist first and
forces him to give him two more tattoos--the caduceus symbol and a
phoenix tattoo. Afterward, Ink arrived on the battlefield and healed
Moonstar with the caduceus tattoo. He then defeated the Y-Men with his "Phoenix Force" tattoo by taking away the powers of all the Y-Men. (Click on the highlighted characters above to learn more about them.)
After this, the X-Men
decided that even though he was not a mutant, Ink would stay and train
with the X-Men (mostly because Cyclops was afraid of Eric running around
unchecked with Phoenix-like
powers). Soon after, Moonstar and Sunspot
explained that inking powered tattoos sapped Nunez's willpower and that
by adding the Phoenix Force tattoo to Ink, pushed Nunez too hard,
leaving the tattoo artist in a coma. In this state, Nunez barely has
enough conscious to maintain
Ink's powers, because if he were to wakes up, Ink would revert to a
normal
tattooed human. (To learn about the X-Men and/or Sunspot, click on their
highlighted names above.)
Recently, when Dust
began dying from a hidden health condition, Ink attempted to heal her
with his caduceus tattoo; however, it failed and she died. Her death
upset him, causing the
others to realize that Ink truly did care about the team. Ink even
stated that Dust didn't deserve to die; therefore, despite knowing that
his Phoenix tattoo was untested, Ink tapped in the his "Phoenix Force"
and revived Dust from the dead. However, the immense strain left Ink
comatose. Afterward, Beast, stated that Ink's mind still has activity, but it is subdued because it appeared to have been overcharged.
There is nothing there, but here is the Marvel.com link to Ink's bio, http://marvel.com/universe/Ink.
So he's not really a mutant... very interesting. I wonder how his tattoo artist discovered his power of transferring powers. Anyway, Ink is pretty cool- I'd probably be tempted to get covered in powerful tattoos ;-)
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