FYI folks I talked to Alex Milne this weekend (with the glorious help of @optronixes!!!) and got hella Tarn Facts™ (hint: how he got his facial scarring). I’m in the airport on my phone rn but when I’m home on an actual computer I’ll type it up
Okay here we go: this is Alex Milne’s backstory on how Tarn got his facial scarring.
Remember this panel in issue 8?
Unsurprisingly, there was no additional backstory given to this line in MTMTE– though it’s clear that Tarn had a personal grudge against Grimlock. When Tarn was newly rebuilt, and finally had his empurata fully repaired, he had a run-in with Grimlock, who injured his brand new face. He never repaired his face in order to serve a reminder to himself to never let his guard down or be caught unawares again (even though he, uh, totally was in this issue… oh Tarn sweetie). Essentially, a form of self-punishment for what he perceived as his own weakness in allowing himself to be injured in the first place.
Alex then explained that the damage on the mask, however, is self-inflicted. Tarn had a lot of issues about his face, obviously, being an empurata victim, then getting a whole new face, having that face disfigured, wearing a mask, etc. So it became a nervous tick of Tarn’s to claw/pick at the mask over his facial scarring (presumably in lieu of picking at clawing/picking at the scars themselves).
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 