15 Famous Video Game Tattoos (And What They Actually Mean)

5. Red XIII - Final Fantasy VII

It wouldn't be much fun to be branded with a tattoo that you thought meant you'd soon degenerate into an empty husk of a being - mutilated and unable to function in the world in any meaningful way. That was the fear plaguing Red XIII - the oft-overlooked dog-lion creature of Final Fantasy VII. The tattoo on his front left leg is identical to those etched onto the Sephiroth clones - failed test subjects in an experiment by the crazed Professor Hojo that involved injecting creatures with the cells of Jenova, an alien life form set on destroying the world (naturally, these tests didn't go well). The 'XIII' simply means he was the 13th in line to be experimented upon. Thankfully for Red, it turns out that he isn't just another Sephiroth clone, but that his role in the experiments was to mate with Aerith in an attempt to create a long-living demi-god. There'd obviously have been logistical issues with this, given Red's a dog and Aerith's a humanoid, but such silly practicalities wouldn't have deterred the certifiably bonkers Hojo from giving it a go.