20 Famous Movie Tattoos (And What They Actually Mean)
14. The Night Of The Hunter (1955)
Role: Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell
Nowadays, a five-minute stroll down your local high street will result in you seeing several people with two four-letter words theyve deemed to be somehow poignant tattooed on the knuckles of their right and left hands. Back in the days when Charles Laughton was still involved in the film industry, tattooed knuckles were rather more of a rarity, making their inclusion in his classic thriller The Night of the Hunter all the more scandalous.
Harry Powell is a self-appointed preacher and outspoken lover of God. He seems agreeable enough, though having L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E inked on his right and left hands would have suggested to film goers that he was a bit off-kilter. This is confirmed when we witness his violent misogamy as he travels the country marrying women and murdering them with his trusty switchblade.
His tattoos represent the dichotomy between his religious beliefs and his condemnable actions against women. He is also caught spinning anecdotes about the duality of mankind at several intervals in the film which ties in with his inked knuckles.
Panned on its initial release, The Night Of The Hunter is now a widely watched classic containing one of the earliest and most memorable tattoos in cinema.