For some reason the “Iron Man” sequels have a tendency to delete pesky tattoos. In “Iron Man 2” Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash initially had a tattoo of big bad Loki amongst the tangle of prison tattoos already covering his body. (This was both a nod to the “Thor” movies and to his beloved pet Chihuahua, also named Loki.) But the studio was ultimately worried that the inclusion would confuse viewers, who might conjecture that the two villains were in cahoots. (They were not.)
In the next film, the deeply brilliant “Iron Man 3,” Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin was thought of as a kind of think-tank-developed bad guy; part of that ploy was using colorful, upbeat iconography and turning it into something much more sinister. And so, you can see in early trailers that on the back of the Mandarin’s neck is a Captain America tattoo but instead of a star at the center, it’s the anarchy “A.” It’s unclear why it was removed or if there were more tattoos, but we love this bit of back-story.
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