The world is filled with many legendary rivalries: Yankees vs. Red Sox, Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas. But the greatest rivalry of all is that between horror movie icons, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.

While the two are similar in many ways—they’re both disfigured slashers with a hankering for killing unsuspecting promiscuous, teenagers—their methods couldn’t be more different. Krueger, making his film debut in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” kills his victims with his razor glove at their most vulnerable state, in their dreams as they peacefully sleep. Voorhees, making his debut in Sean S. Cunningham’s “Friday the 13th,” however, enjoys the thrills of tracking down his victims one by one with his machete at Camp Crystal Lake, the same spot he drowned as a boy.

Freddy’s and Jason’s worlds collided in 2003 with the release of “Freddy Vs. Jason,” establishing a shared universe between the two series and a nightmare come true for horror fans everywhere. While a match made in Hell at first, working as an unstoppable force with their teenage victims no longer safe in either their dreams or the real world, their competitive nature soon got the better of them, with Jason killing the victims Freddy intended for himself, proving it’s a dog-eat-dog world even for slashers at the top of their game.

To celebrate this long-standing, nearly four-decade rivalry we created a gallery below showcasing standout tattoos depicting these iconic killers. 

Freddy Kreuger

Freddy vs. Jason

Jason Voorhees