28 Character Defining Movie And TV Tattoos

These celebrity tattoos might not be real, but they sure as hell were memorable. Check out these 28 bad asses that wore their ink proud and with a purpose...

1. Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby in Memento

After being struck in the head while trying to save his wife, Leonard Shelby suffers from short term memory loss while piecing together what bits of information he can gather. His tattoos are a constant reminder of what happened and what needs to be done.

2. Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield in Prison Break

Scofield dedicates his body and life to break his brother out of prison where he was sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit. His tattoo body suit was an elaborate and intricate mask for the layout of the prison of which he deliberately got himself sent to.

3. Brad Pitt as Mickey O'Neil in Snatch

Centered around the back drop of a massive diamond heist, Mickey enters the picture as a tattooed Irish gypsy that is seemingly unbeatable in the ring.

4. Ralph Feinnes as Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon

Known as "The Tooth Fairy" Francis Dolarhyde (also portrayed in 1986's Manhunter) is the subject of an ongoing FBI serial killer investigation led by Edward Norton as Will Graham, with the help of an imprisoned Anthony Hopkins as, of course, Dr. Hannibal Lecter

5. Ed Helms as Stu in The Hangover II

Set two years after the first hilarious installment, The Hangover II moves the wolfpack to Thailand for Stu's wedding. As expected, things go terribly wrong, and Stu gets a Mike Tyson replica tribal tattoo on his face during the madness.

6. Edward Norton as Derek Vinyard in American History X

Vinyard, a former violent neo-nazi skinhead, goes back to his hometown to prevent his younger brother from going down the same path of racism and bigotry. The swastika on his chest remains one of the most haunting and memorable tattoo in cinema.

7. Val Kilmer as Danny Parker/Tom Van Allen in The Salton Sea

Similarly to Memento, Danny Parker assumed an undercover identity of Tom Van Allen and drifted into the underworld of drugs and crime to track down his wife's killer.

8. Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai Luzhin in Eastern Promises

Climbing up the Russian mafia ladder, Nikolai begins as a driver but quickly finds himself in the middle of some kind of rape and sex labor cover up. One of the film's scenes depicts Nikolai getting stars tattooed on his knees; symbolic of "kneeling to no one"

9. Ryan Gosling as Luke in The Place Beyond the Pines

Luke, a motorcycle stunt driver, turns to bank heists as a means of providing for his girlfriend and child. Meanwhile, rookie cop Avery (Bradley Cooper) is hot on Luke's tale while entangled in his own web of corrupt police. Gosling's screen time is short, but his tattoos were a memorable part of his character.

10. Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

In this remake of the Swedish film series (and novel) of the same name, Salander, who is the girl with the dragon tattoo is a young computer hacker that works with Mikael Blomkvist to track down a missing woman from 40 years ago as they uncover a massive corruption.

11. Rod Steiger as Carl in The Illustrated Man

In this 1969 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel, Carl, a mysterious man covered in tattoos is looking for the artist that adorned his body. Carl's tattoos all are representative of some kind of futuristic tale, which is experienced when somebody looks at them. It's a bizarre story of time travel and mystery...

12. Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery as Connor and Murphy MacManus in The Boondock Saints

Among other religion inspired tattoos, the brothers MacManus have the famous lettering tattoos "Veritas" and "Aequitas" on their hands. The brothers continue to do "gods work" and start knocking off mafia members one by one.

13. George Clooney as Seth Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn

Seth and his psychotic brother Richard (Quinton Tarantino) capture a family of hostages and seek refuge in the Titty Twister, a huge biker bar full of vampires and other craziness...

14. Paul Bettany as Archangel Michael in Legion

Michael attempts to fight off the legions of God's angels and prevent the apocalypse at the most unlikely of settings; a diner in the desert. His goal is to protect a newborn baby, and the tattoos on his body instruct him on how to do so in Enochian, a made up angel language.

15. Mila Kunis as Lily in Black Swan

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a ballerina whose life is consumed with dance. As she competes for the lead role with Lily, she slowly descends into madness and her life unravels in a pit of paranoia and despair.

16. Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear

Cady, a psychotic, bible quoting convicted rapist is released from prison. Determined to get revenge, Cady, who has a plethora of religious tattoos goes after Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), the public defender that was assigned to the rape trial and was responsible for Cady's incarceration.

17. Keanu Reeves as John Constantine in Constantine

John Constantine, a demon hunter disguised as a detective, has literally been to hell and back. His soul purpose on earth is to send demons back to hell, but when he finds out that demons are infiltrating the mortal realm, he has to fight every demon in his path to get to Satan himself, played by Peter Stormare.

18. Joseph Julian Soria as Chico in Crank II: High Voltage

In this high octane, over the top thriller sequel, Chico is the leader of a Mexican gang, most highlighted by his face tattoos and painful scene where he is forced to cut off his own nipples.

19. Johnny Depp as Wade Walker (aka Cry Baby) in Cry-Baby

Depp, who is an avid tattoo enthusiast off screen, sports an iconic tear under his eye and electric chair on his chest, plays Wade "Cry Baby Walker" a greaser bad boy who falls head over heals in love with Allison Vernon-Williams, and it gets him in quite a bit of trouble along the way.

20. Angelina Jolie as Fox in Wanted

Centered around Wesley (James McAvoy) who finds out his father was a professional assassin, Fox acts as Wesley's trainer, trying to help him realize his superhuman killing abilities.

21. Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter

Powell is a serial killer who marries and murders widows, and takes their money; he believes he's doing God's work, ridding the earth of these women who arouse the carnal instincts of men. After he's arrested for auto theft, he shares a cell with another convicted killer and they debate the whereabouts of a certain ten thousand dollars...

22. Ashton Kutcher as Jesse Montgomery III and Sean William Scott as Chester Greenburg in Dude, Where's My Car

Jesse and Chester wake up after a rowdy night, and as you probably already know, can't seem to recall where their car is. One of their first realizations is their brand new tattoos "Dude" and "Sweet".

23. Gary Oldman as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It's Harry's third year at Hogwarts. The dangerous Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban prison and plans to go after Harry to avenge the death of the Dark Lord Voldemort.

24. Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in Escape from New York

The future of New York is grim; NYC has turned into a maximum security prison. Snake Plissken, with the appropriate cobra tattooed on his stomach, is in charge of bringing the President into safety and out of the New York wasteland.

25. Vin Diesel as Xander Cage in xXx

An extreme sports stunt rider, Xander is recruited by the government to gather information on a global crime organization aiming to destroy the world.

26. Matt Damon as Max in Elysium

Set in the future where the earth is only inhabited by the impoverished, Max is hell bent to invade Elysium, a wealthy space station utopia, free of diseases and blue collar problems. Invading and shutting down Elysium would restore human equality and destroy the aristocratic station.

27. Russell Crowe as Hando in Romper Stomper

Australian skin heads get violent with Vietnamese immigrants who are threatening their racial purity, but things get really heated when they get angry and everything escalates into an all out brawl.

28. Matthew McConaughey as Denton Van Zan in Reign of Fire

In a post apocalyptic, dragon infested world, colonies of people try to survive and not draw attention from the dragons. Establishing dominance with their senseless fire breathing, it's up to Denton and Quinn (Christian Bale) to fight off the beasts.