Ink On His Hands
American tattoo artist Jake Sawyer (Jason Behr) spends his time travelling around the world looking for ancient and ethnic art which he can exploit in his own tattoo designs and market as ancient cures for ailments. But it is not the design he steals which ends up causing him trouble but an ancient wooden Samoan tattooing tool which he steals on an impulse. Having accidentally cut his hand on the tool he returns to work on clients including his friend Sina (Mia Blake). But when one client after another painfully dies he realises he has unleashed an evil spirit and must undertake a journey full of danger to not only save the woman he loves but also his own tormented soul.
Other than moles the only other marks on my body are a series of scars, I don't have a single tattoo, not that I haven't thought about it, I nearly went for a Celtic band a few years back when they were all the rage but backed out partly because I didn't fancy going through the pain of it. Watching "The Tattooist" reminded me of why I didn't have it done as a close up of some tattoo art going on showed the needle going in and out of the skin which made me cringe. It is why I am sure I will remain just a fan of the art of a great tattoo rather than wanting my body to display any.
Anyway that brings me back to "The Tattooist" which is a bit slow going to start with as we enter the world of Jake Sawyer who makes a living out of healing tattoos which he doesn't even believe in. It actually does a good job of establishing his character and building to the paranormal stuff as he steals the ancient tattoo tool. But it also delivers are first moment of horror with a flashback scene of Jake as a young boy and something which happened to him which will make you sit up and pay attention.
The thing is that after a slow and steady build up "The Tattooist" becomes interesting as the horror starts with people dying, tattoo ink spewing but also Jake having to deal with the situation and his own cynicism and exploitation of others for his own gain. I said the horror starts but in truth "The Tattooist" is more of a thriller than a horror and doesn't go down the traditional route by trying to be spooky. Instead it has a few graphic scenes involving inking going bad.
What this all boils down to is that "The Tattooist" is an entertaining movie with a nice blend of intrigue with horror moments. But it is a movie which is slow going, especially to start with and you need to stick with it for the moments of horror to kick in.
