A Murder of Tattoos

Leonard has a lot of tats. Curious what they are? We've got you covered (as covered as Leonard is).

Here they are, in no particular order.

• CONSIDER THE SOURCE [then underneath it] MEMORY IS TREACHERY
• FIND HIM AND KILL HIM
• [in a pyramid-type structure, starting from the base]
• PHOTOGRAPH: HOUSE, CAR, FRIEND, FOE
• JOHN G. RAPED AND MURDERD MY WIFE
• CONDITION YOURSELF
• EAT
• remember sammy jankis
• FACT 1: MALE
• FACT 2: WHITE
• FACT 3: FIRST NAME JOHN [then, in his own hand] OR JAMES
• FACT 4: LAST NAME G______
• FACT 5: DRUGDEALER
• FACT 6: car license number SG13 7IU
• I'M NO DIFFERENT
• HIDE YOUR WEAKNESS
• DON'T TRUST
• SHE IS GONE [then underneath it] TIME STILL PASSES
• buy film
• CAMERA DOESN'T LIE
• NOTES CAN BE LOST
• HABIT & ROUTINE
• LEARN BY REPITITION
• NEVER ANSWER THE PHONE
• [dreamed of] I'VE DONE IT

Tat-egories

As you can see, it's always the most important things—the things Leonard thinks will never change and that he always needs to remember—that make the final cut as tattoos; everything else is relegated to the notes on his photographs.

Notice how there are different categories of tattoos. The first are everyday things that he needs to do: eat, condition himself, adapt through habit and routine and repetition, buy film. These tattoos are the essentials; the ones he'd like to have regardless of whether he was on some crazy manhunt or not.

The next category can be thought of as cautionary tattoos. The word "memento" doesn't just refer to something that helps us remember; it can mean something which warns us. These include: never answer the phone, notes can be lost, don't trust, hide your weakness, consider the source, memory is treachery, and remember sammy jankis.

Most of these are self-explanatory and, given some of the mistakes and success Leonard has, we think he should refer to these a bit more. Less trusting others, less trusting his memory, more hiding his weakness and not always greeting people with "Hi, I have a this condition, please take advantage of me."

We're counting the remember sammy jankis tattoo as cautionary because it's a warning against having a poor system. Our hands are probably the part of our body we look at most, which is why people write things on their hands when they want to remember them.

So while the large font and prominent locations of tattoos like find him and kill him might make them seem the most important, it's actually the sammy jankis tattoo that gets more attention. Essentially, it's the tattoo that reminds him to get tattoos, so it makes sense to give it primacy over all the others (although we have to question the systematical nature of his tattoos—a nice full sleeve might be more effective for those days when you forget to look at your thighs).

Then we've got all the John G Tattoos. There's the ever important, John G. raped and murdered my wife, find him and kill him, and the six fact tattoos (we use "fact" loosely here). These tattoos evidence just how central John G's existence (contrived or not) is to Leonard's identity. These tattoos are some of the most prominent, and provide Leonard with the sense of purpose and drive to keep living despite the difficulties of his condition.

"I Can't Remember to Tattoo You"

There are a few other tattoos that don't quite fit in to these categories. First up are the she is gone and time still passes tattoos. Apparently Leonard's wife's death hasn't always been so solid in his memory. The only thing worse than waking up every morning remembering your wife is dead is waking up wondering where she is… and then learning the truth from a psychiatrist for the first time over and over again.

Then we've got the I've done it tattoo, which we see briefly as Leonard drives toward the tattoo parlor in the final scene. He imagines himself lying with his wife with that tattoo on the left side of his chest, with his wife lying on him and feeling his tattoo, presumably at peace now that she has been avenged. The real question this brings up his—why didn't he get a tattoo after he killed the real John G? Guess we'll never know.

Finally, there's the I'm no different tattoo, which is a little bit confusing. Is he saying he's no different from other people? Because (reality check) he is. Maybe it's that he's no different from the Leonard he was before. After all, how can he be different if he can't accumulate more experiences and shift his self-perception? How other people view Leonard has surely changed drastically since the incident, but his personal identity is stuck in time.