I had heard the rumors long before I ever walked into an arcade and witnessed Mortal Kombat. 

“There’s so much blood! Every time you punch someone it splatters on the screen!”

“You can rip a person’s head off with spine attached! It’s insane!”

“There’s a level where you can fall onto a pit of spikes!” 

Needless to say, my imagination had built up Mortal Kombat to be the most graphically violent experience of my young life and, unlike almost everything I’ve imagined ever since, it lived up to the task. 

Street Fighter II may have set the standard for gameplay within the fighting game genre, but Mortal Kombat upped the ante with a dose of the old ultra-violence thanks to the game’s fatalities. 

Of course, if the violence was all the game had going for it Mortal Kombat never would have become the cultural institution that it has. Since first corrupting the youth of America back in 1992 the franchise has spawned at least 11 games (some spin-offs too) and three movies of varying degrees of quality. 

Unsurprisingly the game has also spawned some truly killer tattoos, like the one below. 

Every time I look at that tattoo I want to pull somebody’s head clean off with the spine still attached. But I’m not as strong (or mean) as Sub-Zero, so I can’t. There are thousands of amazing tattoos inspired by the franchise and I swear that at least three quarters of them are of Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Sure, this makes sense given how badass the two ninjas are in the game (and in the most recent film), but there are more than 60 characters! Why doesn’t Motaro get any love? Or Reptile? Or Stryker… meh, strike that. I understand why nobody got that bozo tattooed on them. 

Please don’t mistake the above statement as me saying that people shouldn’t get tattoos of Sub-Zero or Scorpion, they whoop ass and as you’ll see from the tattoos below there are so many good ones. I just want to see a little variety, is that too much to ask. And Babality tattoos. I want to see a baby Shao Kahn. If you’re brave please go and get that tattoo and send it to us. Thank you. 

Ready…. FIGHT!