Suicide Squad: Decoding All 16 Of Jared Leto's Joker Tattoos

15. "J"

Continuing the Joker/Jason Todd theory: the J branded on his cheek is awfully reminiscent of the Arkham Knight reveal that shows Jason Todd to be alive. In that story, the Joker brands Todd with a J and convinces him Batman did it.

Obviously there's a possibility that the J simply stands for Joker, but there's too much evidence pointing towards Jason Todd's involvement in the prologue to simply ignore the theories. And then of course there's the line in Batman v Superman that Bruce Wayne utters: "20 years in Gotham. How many good guys are left? How many stayed that way?"

So someone turned bad who was previously good? Sounds an awful lot like Todd.

But then again, that could all be misdirection: the J could simply be a taunt to Batman over his dead ward. In that respect the position is also interesting: in prison tattoo tradition, a teardrop tattoo (which you have to admit the J resembles) represents a murder (usually committed by the wearer). For it to be a J in that position is particularly pertinent if you choose to accept Joker merely killed Todd rather than being him previously.

14. Star

The most over-looked tattoo so far (since it was covered in that first Joker reveal image), the star on the side of Joker's face is a strange one. Stars are usually evocative of light, protection and guidance in tattooing (though their symbolism has been diluted by people thinking they just look pretty).

In Russian prison tattooing, stars mean power (in terms of rank), but that is limited to 8-pointed stars, so this wouldn't seem to be symbolic of that.

It could of course simply mean stardom or it could be a vague reference to All Star Batman (it was super zany at times after all), but it's strange that Ayer would claim all his tattoos show his history, when this one seems so general.