Yes the tattoo and also the clothes she's wearing indicates that she is a different person now

Probably will be explained well in the game, and very likely in her personal quest.
About the game, is really rough now but I think the new colorist will be reliable, he always replies to email, is just that he is attending some specialization school abroad so he has much less free time. Also the game is so much bigger than the previous that is normal if it requires more time to make (writing, art, etc). Hopefully other games will fill the gap between its release

I'm doing all I can to "motivate" the various people working on it (and on the other RPGs) right now, be sure of that
