Oct 23, 2008 05:09 PM
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Some of the coolest characters in science fiction sport bad-ass tattoos that signify membership in a secret society. And if you're a futuristic assassin, there's nothing like having some ink on your face to set you apart from the regular tough guys. It's amazing how much character development movies and TV shows manage to cram into a little ink. In fact, it's high time we took a look at the many black and blue markings across our favorites characters' faces, backs, arms and bodies.
Leeloo from The 5th Element:
Milla Jovovich's character is the savior of the whole planet, and you can tell just from looking at her wrist. And of course, her dotted markings also match the markings on the movie's ever-important stones.
Tattoo From Elektra
Chris Ackerman's character's colorful belly buddies could come alive, off of his skin, and do a lot of damage. Obviously he's not the only tattoed man with powers. There's a Green Lantern villain, the Tattooed Man, who's a classic. We may actually be seeing Abel Tarrant the Tattooed Man in the Green Arrow's new flix Supermax
Fox from Wanted
Even though Angelina Jolie was pretty tatted up before playing the role of hottie assassin in Wanted, she added on even more wordy tattoos to her arms, hands and back. Guess which ones are real.
The vampire tat from Blade.
I think that if I ever saw someone with the familiar tattoo from the Blade movies we would become fast friends. While Wesley Snipes had some pretty serious shoulder markings around his upper half, nothing could beat the secret society "friends of the vampires" sign.
Enola from Waterworld
When the world is flooded and you spend your days on a boat drinking your own urine, look for the girl with the map on her back. The Japanese tattoo, that was NEVER explained, apparently held the key to dry land.
Scully from X Files
Scully gets a tattoo because she went through a thing, oh admit it Scully you're a bad girl at heart. Before finding out that her buddy's tattoo controlled his actions (photo above voiced by Jodie Foster no less) she got a Celtic Ouroboros slapped on her back. Here's video of Scully getting all inked up:
Lana Lang from Smallville
Lana's witchy tattoo connected her, not only to a bad lady with evil intentions, but to the Krypton Stones as well.
Jessica Sanders from Heroes
The symbol which plagues all the super humans is tattooed onto Jessica's back, and is half of the symbol of the evil company Pinehearst. Will the tattoo get its own plot line on Heroes?
Darth Maul from Star Wars : Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Before Darthy became an evil Sith he was just a red little fella, and then Sidious got his hands on him.
Chakotay from Star Trek Voyager
Noble Chakotay's face markings aren't explained until the "Tattoo" episode where you learn that others have the same style and design. Chakotay's tatts are to honor his father.
Rico Dizz And The Rest Of 'EmStarship Troopers
Because you're not really a bug killer unless you have a ridiculous tattoo, best part is during the futuristic laser branding scene they throw alcohol all over his freshly zapped skin, ha.
Denton Van Zan from Reign of Fire
Matthew McConaughey ridiculous dragon fighting attitudes were eclipsed only by his body armor of dragon tatts, he totally stole Clooney's look from Dusk Till Dawn.
Snake from Escape From New York
Fantastic character, terrible, horrible "snake in my pants" tattoo. How many times do you have to make the "do you want to see my trouser snake" joke, just for getting that tattoo?
Battlestar Galactica Love Tattoos
If I wasn't such a total wuss I would get Starbuck's and Anders' awesome "we're in love" tattoos tomorrow. Besides the fact that they are pretty beautiful, I love that they supposedly got them around the time of their wedding to represent love. The tattoo on the left however is from Gaeta! Who knew he had it in him.
The Doctor from Doctor Who
Jon Pertwee sported a cool tat in his first appearance as the Doctor — now do tattoos stay after you regenerate?
And no as much as I wanted to talk about Constantine, From Dusk Till Dawn and Harry Potter tattoos, they ain't scifi my friends. (Dusk Till Dawn's Clooney tattoo wins in that group btw). What's your favorite science fictional tattoo?
Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.
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