20 Famous Movie Tattoos (And What They Actually Mean)

17. Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Harry Potter Sirius Black
Warner Bros.

Role: Gary Oldman as Sirius Black

The film€™'s treatment of Sirius Black would be an early sign of the darker (and far more compelling) direction the world€™s beloved wizarding series would take. Alfonso Cuarón - who went on to direct the superb sci-fi thriller Gravity €“ catered to the franchise€™s maturing audience after replacing the more high-spirited Chris Columbus as director with a far more adult film compared to the preceding two movies; one of the ways he achieved this was through the treatment of the sort-of villain, Sirius Black.

To give him a suitably foreboding look, the titular prisoner of Azkaban was given a few chest tattoos to reinforce the notion that this wizard had been in jail (much like in Eastern Promise which just missed a place on this list), despite the complete absence of any body art on Sirius in the books.

As you might expect, the Harry Potter purists were enraged, yet they had no reason to be. It€™s not as if Sirius Black was given a large tribal piece on his neck - he was marked with a few Nordic-inspired runes and glyphs which looked perfectly plausible for his character.

Though outside of Rowling€™s magical lore these tattoos were a nice visual flourish, which allowed Cuarón to put his distinctive mark on the film and to bolster Black€™'s rough-round-the-edges persona.

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Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.