The Joker’s Tattoos

Hey Jokerholics,
I know I’m kind of late posting this since you all probably saw the Jared Leto tease of Joker’s new look, but I am going to use this time to just give you all my personal  and humble opinion about the whole issue.   In reality it is very simple…

First take a look at it:

1.  Idea of a Joker with tattoos…a very promising concept indeed

• Yes, I mean, really.  Why can’t we imagine a Clown Prince of Crime who does like tattoos? We all know the Joker is crazy, but he can also be a trendy dude, can’t he? He probably LIKES tattoos.  Let’s remember what Frank Miller tried to do in his ill fated collaboration with Jim Lee Batman and the Robin the Boy Wonder.  His Joker was not only a romantic psycho in the series, but he wore a rather large red dragon tattoo on his back for Christ sake!  Talking about making a statement Mr. Miller!  Yes the whole series was an epic failure for the most part (except for Jim Lee’s magnificent art), but it was a sincere try to reinvent a Clown that has so many different incarnations already.
• Also you have to consider, after Heath Ledger’s memorable portrayal  of the Joker in the DARK KNIGHT movie, there is not much room to outdo that performance or refresh the character.  The Nolanverse Joker was the most realistic form of the Clown Prince of Crime to date, but if you wanted a more classical view of the Joker, there was always the Jack Nicholson’s Clown portrait  of BATMAN 1989, and if you wanted something even campier… well, there was the Batman 1966 Joker portrayed by Cesar Romero. Reinventing the Joker after these performances was becoming harder and harder with any new incarnation.  New venues had to be explored and why not a tattooed Joker for once.  It looked like a nice thought experiment.

2.  The nature of Suicide Squad Joker’s tattoos:

• That is kills the dream for me.  Yes, a tattooed Joker would have been a nice refreshing concept, but the selection of the tattoos for this Clown Prince of Crime is just an overkill…and Black and white?  Come on, Joker is a colorful villain, and if he could only select one color it would not be black…it would be purple (I can’t tell, but maybe the tattoos are made in dark purple ink?).  OK. Let’s analyze those tattoos for a moment:
  • Large Jester skull and playing cards:  really, what kind of meaning does this have for Joker.  I’ve been trying to put myself in the state of mind of the Clown in an effort to find a logic for this tattoo. It is so cliché. Skull Jesters and playing cards are all over the place, all over the internet, in decals, in bumper stickers… it is just a common motif and we all know that Joker is not a common guy.  His psyche is totally warped, abnormal, disturbed, twisted.  The last thing he wants is to be like the common folk.  So why would he select such a common image like that?  Beats me.  I personally don’t think he would wear a large skull jester in his chest, he will find something more shocking and disturbing.
  • HAHAHA tattoos:  Actually this is more like a Joker thing, something that Joker would probably wear in his skin, but the pattern is so uniform, and absorbing.  I think that Joker would have gone for something a little more unusual ( the pattern on his shoulder was promising).  His laughter is chilling and scary, not just a happy laughter and if he would decide to wear it, I think he would like to do something unusual about it.
  • The Big smile on his forearm:  OK, this to me was a total waste of piece of skin art, until I saw a little unknown photomanipulation of Joker using this tattoo to exaggerate his rather unremarkable grin (remember, this Joker does not have Ledger’s scarred grin.  Actually he seems to have a normal mouth with a lipstick enhanced smile).  Neat concept idea for a use of the tattoo, but I still see that that it misses the mark as a whole.  To me it looks more like a tribute to Miller’s Joker from DARK KNIGHT RETURNS graphic novel (if you have not seen it, there is a panel in that graphic novel with a similar smile when Joker finally recovers his purpose after seeing Batman on TV). To me that is almost totally useless tattoo.
  • “Damaged” tattoo on the forhead:  OK, so this is like the most ridiculous choice of a tattoo for the Clown Prince of Crime.  If maybe you could make all the other tattoos “kind of work” this one would just throws any possibilities out the window.  What the hell does Joker need to advertise that he has a messed up head?  It makes absolutely no sense. Even the placing on the forehead makes it an ever poorer choice  for a tattoo.  Please Mr. David Ayer and Suicide Squad editors, delete this tattoo in postproduction.  It is just annoying, like that large hairy mole on the face of your best friend.  You can’t stop staring at it, and miss every thing else the character is trying to do.

3.  The Joker’s grill

• What the hell is the reasoning behind this.  I don’t think anybody knows, but instead of just being a trendy piece of mouth jewelry, this looks like Joker has not brushed his teeth in weeks.  Weird, and I personally am not too fond of it.  BUT…I love the explanation that has been running around that he’s using the grill because he’s covering the teeth that Batman had knocked out in previous fights.  It’s a possibility and makes the choice of the grill, kind of reasonable, less shocking  but not any less attractive.

4.  MY CONCLUSION: 

• This Joker conception is faulty in may aspects of his looks.  It is to me a hybrid between being cartoony (electric green hair anyone, pinky ring?), ridiculous and realistic.  It will probably take ALL OF Jared Leto’s Oscar winning skills to make me bypass all the issues I have with this portrait.    He better make this Joker more memorable than Ledger’s Clown if he wants this new interpretation to really work in the big screen (but then I know that also depends on how well the screenwriters wrote him in the plot.  In the meantime, I will just sit and wait until I see more Joker action and the movie, and hope that DC makes me regret what I am about to say, but…

I LOVE JOKER, BUT REALLY… I DON’T THINK THIS IS GONNA WORK.