You Won’t Believe the Story Behind Joker Joaquin Phoenix’s First Tattoo

While Joaquin Phoenix is by no means a new face in Hollywood, he is new to playing DC’s favorite villain, Joker. Many celebrating actors have taken on this role and made it their own, most recently Heath Ledger and Jared Leto. And what do Ledger, Leto and Phoenix all have in common aside from this character? Well, they all have tattoos!

That’s right, the new Joker has a tattoo you might not know about and the story behind it is truly something else. The tattoo in question is an imperfect circle on the inside of Phoenix’s left bicep, which according to a 2008 article by Infinite Tattoos Blog, was inked during Italian fashion week.

“I was in Florence and we had just been to the fashion week in Milan. Everybody had these Gaelic symbols that were about wisdom, things like that.”

“I’d always dreamed about getting a tattoo but I didn’t want it to be a fashionable symbol. So I said, ‘Let’s get a ‘nothing’ tattoo.’ That’s why I have this badly drawn circle.”

“It hurt like hell and there was also a problem with the language barrier.”

What do you think about the story behind Joaquin Phoenix’s tattoo? What did you think about Joker? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments section.