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David Ayer discusses The Joker and Harley Quinn’s tattoos in Suicide Squad

June 16, 2016 by Gary Collinson

Warner Bros. has certainly done a fine job of building excitement for August’s Suicide Squad with a splendid marketing campaign for the DC Extended Universe supervillain team-up.

However, things didn’t particularly  get off to the best of starts, with the first-look image of Jared Leto’s Joker coming in for some heavy criticism due to the decision to cover the Clown Prince of Crime in various tattoos.

Well, during an interview with Yahoo!, director David Ayer has discussed The Joker’s body art, as well as his grill:

“The tattoos tell a very specific story. 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. And even his teeth, there’s an entire story behind that which is absolutely canon. It’s putting his history on his body. This Joker is a little more working class, who I believe could live in our world.”

SEE ALSO: David Ayer says The Joker is “very loyal to the canon, but with some modern twists”

Ayer also spoke about the tattoos that Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn sports, stating that: “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. She did them herself out of boredom and desperation… There’s I Heart Puddin’, a Joker face, a love heart… that’s obviously reflective of her time in prison.”

SEE ALSO: New Suicide Squad images featuring The Joker, Harley, Enchantress, Deadshot and Rick Flag

It feels good to be bad…Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?

Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5th 2016 and sees David Ayer (Fury) directing a cast that includes Will Smith (Focus) as Deadshot, Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) as The Joker, Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) as Rick Flagg, Viola Davis (The Help) as Amanda Waller, Cara Delevingne (Paper Towns) as Enchantress, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Thor: The Dark World) as Killer Croc, Ray Olubowale (Resident Evil: Afterlife) as King Shark, Jay Hernandez (Hostel) as El Diablo, Adam Beach (Flags of Our Fathers) as Slipknot, Jim Parrack (Fury) as Johnny Frost, Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) as Batman, newcomer Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Common (Selma) as Monster T, and Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project) and Scott Eastwood (The Longest Ride) in as-yet-unconfirmed roles.

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Originally published June 16, 2016. Updated March 2, 2020.

Filed Under: Gary Collinson, Movies, News Tagged With: David Ayer, DC, DC Extended Universe, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Suicide Squad

About Gary Collinson

Gary Collinson is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Flickering Myth. He is a film, television and digital content writer and producer, whose work includes the gothic horror feature The Baby in the Basket and the suspense thriller Death Among the Pines. He is also the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.

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