Retrospective: Tattoo (1981)

[David N. Butterworth]

TATTOO (1981)
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2016 David N. Butterworth

** (out of ****)

He first spies her on the cover of a glamour magazine, pouty and alluring,
and then on TV in a perfume commercial, sensuous and inviting. He has to
have her, possess her, leave his mark on her. He is Karl Kinsky, a
decorated (literally) Vietnam vet obsessed with *irezumi*, the traditional
Japanese art of tattooing. Post-'nam, he plies his learned trade in a
Hoboken tattoo parlor. He is played by Bruce Dern, Hollywood's favorite
loony, back when he likely appealed to the ladies. Like Maddy. She's a
model, played by former "Bond girl" Maud Adams ("The Man with the Golden
Gun," "Octopussy"). They coincidentally meet when a fashion editor
propositions Karl to design some temporary tattoos--dragons and anchors and
stuff--for a shoot with a nautical theme: scantily-clad women draped across
buff, underdressed seamen (Maddy is one of the scantily clad). Obsession,
domination, the permanence of ink--all these figure in Karl's elaborate
plan to possess Maddy completely. Bob Brooks never made a theatrical film
before or after "Tattoo," but he teamed up with Luis Bunuel's
daughter-in-law (!?) to write this schlock, an early '80s "after hours"
drama akin to "Bedroom Eyes" and "Masquerade" and "I, the Jury" (all
proudly "now on Fox/CBS" videotape). Apart from a couple of episodes of
TV's "Space: 1999" and a stellar made-for-television movie about London
cabbies called "The Knowledge" (1979), "Tattoo" was it for Brooks. Perhaps
the outcry that accompanied the film's release (its publicity art featured
a naked woman bound at the ankles) turned him off filmmaking altogether.
Or maybe he just wanted to get Adams in the buff. Mission accomplished,
Bob.

--
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews
butterwo...@gmail.com