Yes, I have to find a way to make the vow before God something that has physical affects. I may have to venture slightly into the realm of magic here. But yes, the ceremony is required although simple enough to still be performed under a variety of circumstances.

I'm giving each person a symbol that is like their name. It's something of their definition or captures their essence in a picture.

I'm not having each person have their mark on their own skin. I've heard those of us without tattoos referred to as having "virgin skin" and that's what got me thinking. A tattoo is also something you can't undo so I decided to make something of a metaphor out of it. The theme of Dracula and the original vampire folklore was that their bite was based on lust so even though it was about a monster, it's really about purity and that's what I was going for.

I'm thinking the symbol will be given at the "christening", perhaps on a necklace but the tattoo magically appears.

Any thoughts on how things should distort based on an immoral relationship or divorce or death?

Perhaps a distortion if someone cheats on their spouse is that they have two people's tattoos rather on top of each other, making it a bit of a mess? Perhaps the tattoo is blurred and hard to see the shape properly if you aren't married. What if a person has an immoral relationship, but then both of them change and decide to get married?

I like the idea of death making it fade but leave a bit of a mark, because you're morally free when your spouse dies, but it's also left a lasting impression.

I was going to save gray-green for the not so good relationships... I'd want to give a real, true relationship nothing less than silvers and golds and beauty.

Absolutely. *wants to sketch some tattoo designs*