Whereas actor Brad Pitt presently does not have any tattoos of his own, two of his movie roles have featured tattoos. In OCEAN’S ELEVEN, Pitt plays card magician Rusty Ryan, friend of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean. Ryan is recruited to help pull off a heist whereby a vault containing $150 million is robbed during a prize fight.

Rusty Ryan has a black tribal tattoo design on his left hand. As the character spends the entire movie in long-sleeve shirts and jackets, it’s really never seen. Most of the time Pitt’s cuffs are unbuttoned and all you get are little tails ends peeking out. It does shape his character as it becomes obvious that his mannerisms are meant to keep the tattoo low key. No explanation is given for the tattoo and you never get more than a glimpse of it.

As a tattoo, it comes off as a throwaway, a little detail that distracts more than it adds. For a criminal and a card player, the tattoo is both too obvious being placed on his hand and the style isn’t the sort that criminals tend to display. Card players do get very specific about their wristwatches, cuffs, rings and other hand ornaments, favoring items that seem lucky or don’t interfere with their work. A permanent bold tattoo seems out of character, being way too identifying a characteristic for a card manipulator, and too crude given the overall style of presentation that the Ryan character affects otherwise.