Burke-Jonah Hex

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art67072.asp

The Tattoos of JONAH HEX

There's no doubt in modern movies that Hollywood has the technology of creating realistic looking tattoos. Not only do they make the skin designs look realistic, finally losing that Cracker Jack stuck-on appearance, but they've also gotten hip to how modern body art appears. Less and less do you see tattoos done for the camera; more often the body are really looks like it goes with the character.

After viewing the most recent movie trailer for the upcoming summer release, JONAH HEX, I have to wonder if Hollywood is just in the grips of tattoo mania? There is a certain amount of "hey, let's put a tattoo on the bad guy!" that you see done in movies. Yes, it's more often the bad guy who has the body art. In the latest trailer for Jonah hex, the movie adaptation of the Western-set comic book, some tattoo body art caught my eye.

Michael Fassbender, best known from his work in the movies 300 and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, plays the bad guy Burke in JONAH HEX. He's the henchmen in right hand to the villainous John Malkovich, whom the branding-iron-scarred hero Hex (played by Josh Brolin) must try to stop. The character of Burke is an Irishman, and in an interview with screencrave.com from August 2009 he described the character is being a bit like "Clockwork Orange meets Frank Gorshin." But what I don't understand are the tattoos.

You can't get a clear look at the arm work from the trailer, as there only a few quick cut clips. But in the movie posters some facial tattooing is quite apparent. And it looks like stylized Maori moko designs. What I'd totally do not understand is why an Irishman working for a terrorist in the United States in the 
Wild West some time in the mid-to-late 1800s would have this kind of tattoo work. Was this done just for the appearance? Is there actually some character justification for this? Or is it just for those moments when some makeup guy decided he had to be really cool because he had this great idea?

I guess we won't know until the movie opens on June 18, 2010...

You can get a better look at Burke's facial tattoos at the official Jonah Hex web site.