Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen Memento, you might not want to read this post, as I'll probably reveal stuff about the film you don't want to know.

I just watched Memento with my students and am thinking about it a bit. Obviously, the structure of the film brings the loop to the forefront, something I'm sure I'll talk about at MPCA, but what interests me at the moment are Leonard's tattoos. Some floating ideas:

• Tattoos are "all the rage." Why have tattoos become mainstream body art? (When A&E has a show about it, it's mainstream.) I've heard the notion that tattoos are "something to remember 'me' by." Memento obviously plays on that. They're also permanent, and broadcast something about the tatt-ee. Natalie calls Leonard's tats creepy.
• They become metonymic for the shifting reality of the postmodern world. I'm tempted to make a few connections here, but they aren't all that flushed out: the tattoos and notes seem to be metonyms for print and electric communication. The former are more sturdy and reliable, but they may still be inaccurate.
• The tattoos also provide the founding myths of Leonard's life, much like print texts provide founding structures for national mythologies. (CF The Atlas of the European Novel and others.) In other words, the "John G. Raped and Killed Your Wife" tattoo becomes the driving force behind Leonard's life despite the fact that, if Teddy is to be believed, Leonard's wife survived. In that light, they function much like the Horatio Alger myth.