A tattoo artist is forced to confront his past when a client knows what his tattoos really mean.

Director’s Vision for ‘Marked’

While tattooing me, my artist admitted he used to be in a criminal gang, but left that life behind after his daughter was born. However, he met way more dangerous people as a tattoo artist than he ever did as a gang member. One such client was a hitman who murdered over 300 people. While tattooing the hitman with symbols of death, the topic of their conversation transitioned from their children to their violent pasts. At one point, my artist asked the hitman if he regretted what he did. The hitman claimed he felt terrible for all the families who lost their loved ones, but in his mind, he was an honorable soldier. He only ever killed those also involved in criminality. Both men had dark pasts, but my artist wanted to transcend his while the hitman embraced it. Having recently become sober, I was drawn to stories of how people dealt with their indelible history. I thought it’d be fascinating to depict a reformed hitman whose murder tattoos are recognized by somebody.