Tattoo


Does anyone know what the Tattoo "Dakota #9" is in reference to on the womans thigh?

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No. And why a movie would include a cryptic tatoo like this, without any explanation or other reference to it anywhere in the film, is beyond me.

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The whole tattoo thing was unnecessary. He asks the kid to prove he slept with her by telling him what the mark looks like, with no guarantee that he'll actually see it. Then he puts cameras in the house anyway. Video is all the proof he'd need. I think the set up of this movie was good, but it got a little contrived plot wise.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

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Granted, all the husband needed were the video tapes, but if he didn't ask the kid to verify the tattoo, then the kid would know there were video cameras, wouldn't he? The tattoo verification was just for the kid's benefit, so he didn't know he'd be on camera. I'm guessing they explained the meaning of the tattoo "Dakota" in one of the scenes that got cut (inevitably they cut stuff out of movies).

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Good answer septimus77. Yeah, have the kid look for a mark on her body so he wouldn't suspect there were video cameras recording their behavior.

The "Dakota" tattoo. Who knows? You may be right. They cut the explanation from the movie. When I saw the tattoo, the first thing that came to my mind was where John Lennon was living and was assassinated by Mark David Chapman, in New York City, on December 8, 1980.

I thought there was too much extra stuff in this movie that didn't have to be there. For example, the kid's best friend killing the homosexual son of the Governor. Then the kid gets involved in dumping the body. So the police are shadowing the kid and the P.I. is following him too. Then everybody show up with guns. It's too much.

Even though I made this criticism, I still enjoyed the movie and would recommend seeing to my friends.

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Well, you've brought up some interesting questions about possible meanings of the tattoo.

I somehow don't think it is related to John Lennon's assassination-- there aren't any 9's that I can think of. John and Yoko lived on the 7th floor, I believe. And the date was December 8, 1980, so there are a bunch of 8's.

I went looking to see if anything immediate would pop up, but I didn't find anything really obvious on the internet, although at one point I saw a band named Dakota 9, but I couldn't figure out where I'd seen it to go back and try to find out if they were even around in 2000, when they were making this picture.

There was a rock band some 20 years ago, I think, named Dakota. I went looking for them, only to find that they retooled as a C & W band. Their self-titled album has a 9th song on it, but it didn't seem like it meant anything.

Now, there *is* a jazz club called the Dakota. In Manhattan, I think.

And of course tons of actors/actresses with the name Dakota somewhere in the name. Dakota Fanning was only 6 years old at the time they were making this movie (though she had done some film, sure).

I'm wondering if maybe you are right that it has to do with the Dakota Apt Bldg in NY-- like maybe at some point the script said that they had lived in Apt #9 there when they first got married or something.

OR maybe it is totally meaningless to us! Shoot, maybe it's the screenwriter's dog's name, you know?

As to the extra stuff-- I kind of thought that the script was pretty tight, actually. The friend who kills the Governor's son is a necessary device, because Jimmy has to have someone that he can pretty much force into doing the thing in the graveyard, since he doesn't want to deal with a gun, himself, and kill the guy. He can't back out, completely, because the husband and his assistant will find his father and torture him, because he was stupid enough to chat about his family before he realized what this guy could do, so he is desperate. The fact that his friend is gay might make it more logical that he'd think the friend wouldn't want to run off with his girl at the last minute, and the fact that the gay friend has already killed makes him at least more likely to be able to do it than Jimmy would.

I thought that if anything, the script relied on coincidence maybe too much-- the lawyer who made the will for the husband turns out to be the same lawyer who hired Jimmy as an intern, for example.

But I thought the script was pretty tight, when you think about all the little things that have to fit together.

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septimus77, thank you for your very thoughtful reply. It is more than worthy of a serious response from me. I just now happened to find your reply. Otherwise I would have answered sooner.

When I wrote: "When I saw the tattoo (Tattoo "Dakota #9"), the first thing that came to my mind was where John Lennon was living and was assassinated by Mark David Chapman, in New York City, on December 8, 1980.", I was sincere. It really was the first thought that popped into my mind. I guess it was just a case of non-linear thinking. However, when I posted my thought I realized it was with a bit of whimsical humor, a bit facetious, on my part.

Being a long time Beatles fan, the #9 made me think of "Revolution 9", a recorded composition on The Beatles' "The White Album". This sound collage was created primarily by John Lennon.

It is memorable because the loop of "#9" featured in the recording fueled rumors about Paul McCartney's death after it was reported that it sounded like "turn me on, dead man" when played backwards.

"Revolution 9" even has a connection to the infamous Charles Manson. Manson viewed the piece as a portrayal in sound of the coming black-white revolution.

So, for some Beatles' fans, the #9 can be interpreted as iconic. Once when I was reviewing a Beatles' music video on Youtube I wrote that I gave it "9 Stars" instead of the maximum allowed, 5 Stars. Another Beatles' fan picked up on my reference and responded with a "LOL".

I doubt that the writers meant the tattoo "Dakota #9" in the movie "Tempted" to have anything to do with the Beatles, or John Lennon, or the Dakota where he lived and died. But who knows?

I was just having some fun with the movie and this forum. It was just my head spinning 'round and imagination running free. Imagine.

septimus77, thanks again for all your research and thoughtful posts.

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Ed-145, thanks for your thoughts, as well. I'm a Beatles fan, and so it is always interesting to muse on such things. Also, you've got the fact that so many people from the generation that saw the Beatles hit the scene are now older professionals and might very well be moviemakers-- it makes it surely possible, even if it's just a message to Beatles fans by merging "Dakota" with the famous "number nine" as two separate references.

I'd never thought of "The" Dakota in relation to that tattoo before, and in fact, before your post I'd never really thought about the content of the tattoo having any significance at all.

But of course there's got to be a reason it says "Dakota #9" as opposed to being a butterfly or a heart or whatever. And the fact that the kid never even mentions it, of course, only further emphasizes how suspiciously specific they made the tattoo in the script (or whoever made it "Dakota #9" if the script was not specific).

I love to analyze movies more deeply like this, so thanks to all who are willing to keep yer thinkin' caps on! (and thanks to the rest of you, who put up with us)

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Early in the movie, Charlie mentions that his wife likes John Lee Hooker, and Jimmy says he does too. I think the tattoo has something to do with that somehow.

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i thought maybe she was a hooker or stripper and that was her handle. I thought he probably "saved" her from "the life"

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

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nothing like a good game of find the birthmark!


We're not soldiers and he's not the enemy. He's a pizza man.

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