David Ayer on Jared Leto's 'Suicide Squad' Tattoos: 'They Tell a Very Specific Story'
Jared Leto as the Joker (Twitter)
Every tattoo tells a story about the person it adorns. That goes double when that person is the Joker. Although past incarnations of the Clown Prince of Crime — from Cesar Romero to Heath Ledger — have been tattoo-free, the latest actor to play Batman’s grinning nemesis, Jared Leto, is virtually covered in ink. That’s the distinctive character look that Suicide Squad director David Ayer hit upon for his highly-anticipated Aug. 5 superhero movie, which unites some of the DC Universe’s most formidable bad guys, among them Deadshot (Will Smith), Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie).
But Leto’s Joker isn’t just adorning his body with tattoos as an artistic statement. As Ayer tells Yahoo Movies UK, each of those images represents a key to the grinning psychopath’s past. “The tattoos tell a very specific story. And eventually people will decipher them and understand what’s going on, but obviously they’re contentious, any time you do something new it’s contentious. There’s very specific stories and Easter eggs in those tattoos. It’s putting his history on his body.”
One such Easter egg is the “Ha ha ha ha” tattoo prominently displayed on Leto’s upper chest and arm (see photo above), a likely reference to an iconic image of the Joker featured in Alan Moore’s 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke. (That controversial one-shot story is being turned into an R-rated animated film set for release later this summer.)
The Joker in ‘The Killing Joke’ (DC Comics)
Might another tattooed Easter egg explain the Joker’s past beef with Batman? As hinted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, he is the most likely reason why the Dark Knight doesn’t have a Robin anymore. And the new Batman, Ben Affleck, will make an appearance in Suicide Squad, in full pursuit of the Joker, whom Ayer likens to a “drug lord.” “If a guy like him really existed today, where would he come from?” Ayer said. “How would he do business? Who would he know? What would he look like? I took a lot of inspiration from drug lords on Instagram. It’s a great way to understand the lifestyle of a villain.”
Related: ‘Suicide Squad’ Mega Photo Gallery, Including All Four ‘Empire’ Covers
Robbie giving David Ayer a tattoo on set (Twitter)
As a faithful disciple of the Joker’s insane preachings, it stands to reason that Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn would also apply a copious amount of ink to her own body. Robbie directed the attention of the Yahoo Movies UK reporter to the Joker face and “I Heart Puddin’” tattoos (“Puddin’” being Harley’s pet name for her partner-in-crime) scratched on her leg. “She did these herself in prison. They’re stick and poke tattoos, prison-style tattoos, that you do when you don’t have a tattoo gun.” As Robbie told Stephen Colbert earlier this year, she kept up the habit even when she was out of character, personally gifting one crew member with a unique tattoo. While everyone else got ink that read “S-K-W-A-D,” this lucky guy got a Robbie special: “Everyone was spelling it as S-K-W-A-D. But I went straight from the S to the W.” Just imagine telling the full story behind that tattoo. Watch the video below:
