Blade, everyone’s favorite tattoo vampire and vampire hunter, is back this winter in the third installment of this Marvel comic movie franchise. As with all movie sequels, a few things have been changed along the way.

Blade’s tattoos have changed a little bit with this incarnation, and it’s apparent he’s had more ink added since the last time we saw him. The most obvious editions are tattooed sideburns, which extend the tattooing that wraps around his head down onto his face. In the image shown here, you can see the stylized tattooing from the movie teaser poster. The tattoos come well forward of his ear and the sideburns are very large with spirals and lots of open space. It is obvious these are artist concepts when you see the final film.

The sideburns do go nicely with Blade’s mustache and goatee. In the images shown here, you can see the slimmer tattooed sideburns actually worn by Blade in the movie. Also, his head tattoos wrap closer to his ears, which is also accurate to past depictions. The sideburn design in the movie more closely reflects the Polynesian roots of Blade’s tattoos.


The designs on the back of Blade’s head have also been changed a bit in this movie. Whereas they still closely resembled the ink he has always worn, the designs have more detailing to them. They aren't as chunky and dark, the designs have more negative space and thinner lines now. Below compare the back of Blade’s head from the first Blade movie on the left, and how the back of his head looks when seen in Blade: Trinity on the right. Blade also has a shorter hair cut now, which allows more room for tattoos to be seen.


As for the rest of Blade’s tattoos, he is more often fully clothed in this movie than in the two previous ones, which means there are almost no shots of the rest of his tattoos. Perhaps this is the reason the head tattoos were expanded for this film. You get a glimpse of a few bits of his arm work during a scene where Blade is being held by the FBI and is wearing a red t-shirt, but that’s about it for the arms. There is one shot of Blade (sort of) at the end of the film, where the chest work is visible, and that appears to have been extended down his sternum from the previous work on the collar bones. However, this is another image that will have to wait for the DVD release to be seen clearly.

Blade’s two sidekicks in this film both sport teeny tattoos of their own. Ex-vampire Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) has a vampire mark just above his pubic hair. Given that all the other vampires in the film have their tattoos on their arms, for scanning in their security system, it makes you wonder if King’s is more of a testament to the low-carb, low-fat diets the actors followed as part of their rigorous fight training program. Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) has a dove tattoo on her right hip and is just a throwaway glimpse seen when the character gears up for the final vampire battle.


You can see Blade's tattoos for yourself with the DVD of
Blade: Trinity or Blade Trilogy - The Ultimate Collection. Or just check out more cool movie tattoos.