Wakanda Forever: Black Panther Tattoos

When Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” hit theaters in 2018, it would be safe to say that audiences were starting to show a little fatigue with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The source wasn’t a drop in quality—one could definitely argue that “Black Panther” was bookended by some of the MCU’s finest films—but simply the oversaturation of superhero films after 17 titles in just nine years. The phenomenon of ‘Black Panther tattoo’ began to emerge as fans celebrated the film’s cultural impact.

Before the premiere had even ended people knew that this film hit differently than the 17 that had preceded it. Audiences were jumping out of their seats in celebration throughout the film, but it was more than that. With an almost entirely Black cast, “Black Panther” offered millions of Marvel fans something they had seen very little of perviously—superheroes that looked like themselves.

Led by tremendous performances from Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan and Lupita Nyong’o, “Black Panther” stood out as a potential tent pole for years of story building to come in the hidden nation of Wakanda.

These plans were thrown into disarray in August 2020 when Boseman passed away from colon cancer. Boseman had never spoken publicly about his disease, so the whole world was shocked when the news hit.

At that point nobody would have faulted Marvel if they completely walked away from the franchise. Replacing Boseman would be a monumental task. And while Boseman’s T’Challah is the centerpiece of the film, the supporting cast was ridiculously talented and their characters were multidimensional. If the franchise were to continue it wouldn’t be equivalent to Jon Favreau’s Happy taking over for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, it would be a further continuation of Wakanda’s story, not T’Challah’s.

“Wakanda Forever” centers around Shuri (Letitia Wright) as she attempts to recreate the heart shaped herb that was essential to the creation of the Black Panther, as she believes it could have saved T’Challah’s life. After discovering the power of vibranium, the outside world does everything they can do in order to obtain the miraculous metal, discovering whole new villains and putting Wakanda in the thick of the mess.

We don’t want to spoil anything so we’ll cut things off there and get to the tattoos.

Remember that time that Diddy got tattooed by Nikko Hurtado with tattoo needles made from gold? How cool would it be to get tattooed by needles made from vibranium?! Assuming that they wouldn’t tear through your body like a hot knife through butter, that is. If “Wakanda Forever” is half as good as we hope, we’ll likely be updating this post with more tattoos of Shuri, M’Baku, Nakia and Okoye. Anyway, before you hit the theater scroll down and enjoy this collection of Black Panther tattoos.