Tattoo is often associated with memory. As Susan Benson puts: “This sense of taking what is external and making it internal is also found among those who seek tattoos as a form of a memorialization of those loved and lost […].”109 For instance, a seventy-five-year-old mother memorialized recently her son – the pilot Liou Tzu-chung – who was killed in the February 2015 TransAsia Airways plane crashes in Taipei, by tattooing her son’s appearance on her upper arm (Fig. 29). This tattoo means to the mother a lot, since, as she explains: “Wherever I go, Tzu-chung would be by my side. I’m so relieved that he can look for me no matter what.”110 As we can understand, tattoo is deeply inscribed in its symbolic practices and with the notion of loss. A dimension Nolan exploits and develops in the scenario of Memento, as for example when Leonard looks at himself in the mirror, and finds the reverse inscription across his chest saying: “JOHN G. RAPED AND MURDERED MY WIFE” (Fig. 30). The sense of loss is enhanced with the inscription marked on his left biceps: “SHE IS GONE” (Fig. 31). These two inscriptions that seem to be hand-written and might have been tattooed by Leonard himself are more intimate and personal. They thus give Leonard and the viewer a deeper meaning of loss and participate to the memorial function that is often attributed to the practice of tattooing.
In addition to the function of mourning the dead, the backward written inscription
“John G. raped and murdered my wife” strongly refers to Leonard’s reversed memory, as well as the backward storytelling strategy used by Nolan. The reversed inscription needs to be read as in a mirror. It is at this time another identity of Leonard slowly
109 Susan Benson, “Inscriptions of the self: Reflections on Tattooing and Piercing in Contemporary Euro-America”, in Jane Caplan (ed.), Written on the Body: The Tattoo on European and American History, London 2000, pp. 234-254, p. 246.
110 http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150515/36551449/ (accessed 17 May, 2015).
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shows up as he studies the phrase. The branding of this inscription helps him not to forget his past and further indicates “who he is becoming.”111 Every time he sees the sentence “JOHN G. RAPED AND MURDERED MY WIFE” he recalls the assault and his determination to find the murderer. He thus impersonates himself as a detective, collecting data like conducting a forensic investigation, and then inscribing the crucial clues on his body as following:
FACT 1: MALE
He thus follows the leads according to the captions on the photos and specifically the
“facts” inscribed on his body to chase down the murderer. His way of collecting data and tattooing them on his body might echo the behavior of what D. Angus Vail has defined as a “tattoo collector,” a person heavily tattooed.112 The reality of the pain113 provoked by the tattooing process anchors Leonard into a reality he has difficulty to grasp. It strengthens the validity and irrefutability of the facts inscribed in his flesh.
As the story unfolds, we learn that these clues are actually leading Leonard to hunt down Teddy who asserts that Leonard has already killed the real John G. We begin to discover that Leonard can manipulate himself, and use photos and tattoos to
“communicate with his future self, because he doesn’t have the connection of memory
111 After Susan Benson, “Inscriptions of the self: Reflections on Tattooing and Piercing in
Contemporary Euro-America”, in Jane Caplan (ed.), Written on the Body: The Tattoo on European and American History, London 2000, pp. 234-254, p. 246. Vale and Juno, interview with Vyvyn Lazonga, in Modern Primitives, pp. 125-6.
112 D. Angus Vail, “Tattoos are like potato chips . . . you can’t have just one: the process of becoming and being a collector”, in: Deviant Behavior, Vol. 20, Issue 3, 1999, pp. 253-273, p. 254.
113 After Susan Benson, “Inscriptions of the self: Reflections on Tattooing and Piercing in
Contemporary Euro-America”, in Jane Caplan (ed.), Written on the Body: The Tattoo on European and American History, London 2000, pp. 234-254, p. 251. Ron Salisbury, quoted by Madam Chinchilla, Tattooing International, CLIII, June 1994, pp. 10-11.
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between two selves” as Nolan puts.114 It may become more evident if we discuss the meaning that lies behind the name “John G.”
“John G.” is an abbreviation of someone’s name. In other words, this person is not specifically identified. Nolan may be exploiting the common usage of the name “John Doe” or “John Q” which often refers to an individual (sometimes a corpse) whose identity is unknown.115 In this case, “John G.” could be anyone, as long as his name fits into the abbreviated “John G.” or “James G,” as Teddy once says to Leonard:
“You know how many towns, how many guys called James G? Or John G? Shit, Leonard, I’m a John G. My mother calls me Teddy. I’m John Edward Gammell.
Cheer up. There’s plenty of John G for us to find.”
In this sense, the “real” meaning of “John G.” can be easily replaced and altered by anyone. Karin Beeler points out that if tattoos are associated with memory preservation, yet the desire to keep someone’s memory could be easily subverted by an incomplete tattoo.116 It might be true that the “real” John G. is killed as Teddy said, and that it does just serve Leonard as a purpose to live. We should also call into question the credibility of the name “John G.” Given the fact it is a common name which is moreover not specifically identified, many people could fit into this criterion.
The real murderer is hence transformed into almost “anyone” that Teddy or Leonard can kill or hunt. For instance, Teddy uses Leonard to kill Jimmy (James F. Grantz), and Leonard manipulates himself to kill Teddy (John Edward Gammell). The memory of “John G.” is thus subverted easily, and the story of John G. is made up by Leonard
114 James Mottram, The Making of Memento, New York 2002, p. 31.
115 See the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/john%20doe (Accessed 7 August, 2015); and Wikipedia:
The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doe#cite_note-Webster1996-8 (Accessed 7 August, 2015)
116 Karin Beeler, Tattoos, Desire And Violence: Marks of Resistance in Literature, Film And Television, North Carolina 2006, p. 14.
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to his will – John G. could be Jimmy or Teddy.
After the release of Memento, the discussion about tattoo and memory in the American serial drama television series Prison Break (2005-2009) intensified, particularly emphasizing the use of tattoo as a mnemonic device. Prison Break describes a man who deliberately gets himself into a prison to rescue his elder brother and help him escape the death penalty. In order to escape from the prison, the protagonist Michael (Wentworth Miller) needs to memorize the detailed blueprint of the penitentiary. In the beginning, Michael is mind mapping the data on the wall (Fig.
32). Nevertheless, under time pressure to digest the enormous amount of information, Michael comes to a solution to record his whole escape plan – by tattooing it on his upper body. Under the disguise of common design schemes such as a demon killing an angel on the front, an angel slaying a demon on the back, and the combination of words and numbers on both arms (Fig. 33), the whole design is in fact the blueprint of the prison layout and the different steps in the escape plan. The mind mapping process is transformed visually onto his body with different images, words, and numbers. The tattoo bears a story no one could decipher, except the protagonist himself. And it also strengthens another identity Michael wants to build – that of the criminal, in order to fit into the role he has originally given to himself. As we have seen, the trend and the link of tattoo and memory in Memento persists and may be adapted into Prison Break.
Nevertheless, the use of tattoos to plan the escape in Prison Break proves to be systematic and logical, unlike the sporadic and arbitrary inscriptions marked on Leonard’s body that eventually causes more problems to the spectators. Nolan distinguishes himself and his work by his unconventional styles of direction, which undoubtedly makes Memento overwhelmingly compelling.
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