MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Iron Man 3 (2013)

8. The Mandarin Has Captain America's Shield Tattooed On Him

Following on with the trend of Iron Man villains having tattoos on them that are actually MCU Easter Eggs (since Whiplash had a Loki tattoo on his neck), The Mandarin - well, Trevor Slattery - has a neck tattoo dedicated to Captain America.

On the back of his neck, the terrorist leader has the image of Cap's shield, only with the star removed and an anarchist's A in its place. It's apparently designed to show his ironic reclamation of heroic symbols that mean something to America. As Shane Black confirmed:

"It was actually part of the design of the Mandarin. He’s very “cobbled together”. It’s essentially a Captain America shield with an anarchy symbol in the middle of it. It’s a corruption of America again."

Co-writer Drew Pierce continues:

It was that brilliant kind of mash up vibe of, “How would a think tank create a terrorist?” And the way that they would do it in their own wanky way is to put together a mood board of all of the symbols of modern Western power. And I think post The Battle Of New York, Cap’s shield would be one of them.