Suicide Squad: Batman Broke Joker’s Teeth

David Ayer gives an explanation for Joker’s mouth grill as well as his most prominent tattoo

The Joker of Suicide Squad, as played by Jared Leto has a pretty unique look that while nobody can mistake him for anybody but Joker, has its own distinct style. One of the more prominent (and divisive) features of this Joker in Suicide Squad is that he’s got a major tattoo fetish. One of his most prominent ones is “Damaged” scrawled across his forehead. One might think that refers to Joker’s mental state, but actually it’s about a very specific incident.

It’s been established that Joker killed Robin in the DCEU (although Suicide Squad implies that Harley Quinn was an accomplice in that, but to what extent we don’t know), but apparently that specific tattoo and the current state of Joker’s messed up mouth. Ayer explained that it’s a result of what Batman did to Joker after discovering the murdered Robin:

"This is sort of my personal thing and maybe less about a larger connection. But Joker killed Robin and Batman basically smashes his teeth out and locks him up in Arkham Asylum. It’s in the asylum where Joker would have done the ‘damaged’ tattoo as a message to Batman saying, ‘You’ve damaged me. I was so beautiful before and now you’ve destroyed my face.’ That’s where the grill comes from."

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While I see what they were going for there, and I did enjoy what little we got of Jared Leto as Joker in the film, this is definitely a case where less would’ve been more. It would’ve been simpler to just have the grill and leave it at that. The “damaged” tattoo is just way too on the nose. But luckily I don’t think it detracts much if at all from the performance. Suicide Squad is in theaters now.

h/t Empire