The tattoos are Matthew Fox's, but they've been written into the show as part of Jack Shephard's backstory.

In the flashbacks that we've seen, the tattoos are conspicuously missing (Jack prefers sleeveless scrubs to show off his lack of tattooing). On the island, they're seen, but very rarely talked about, one mention being Jack telling Sawyer that he got them done in Malaysia. He also told Kate something about them. In a scene in the first season (and one of the first episodes) Charlie walks up to them, and asks Jack about the tattoos and Jack and Kate just smile; then Charlie says "Oh that's great, you two have an inside joke."

While living on the beach in Phuket, Thailand Jack meets a local woman named Achura. Jack is there to find himself, and through Achura, he does just that...

Achura receives money from a friend while she and Jack are dining in a restaurant. This makes Jack curious; he asks about it and Achura tells him she has a gift. One night when Achura visits Jack at his beach hut (like she has been for the past month), he tells her he would like to know something about her. Achura tells Jack that there are some things that he will never understand about Phuket or about her gift. She asks Jack if he has been having fun with her. When he says 'yeah', she says 'let's keep having fun' and they keep at it.

This isn't a good enough explanation for Jack so he follows her one night. He follows her to what appears to be a tattoo parlor. Achura informs Jack that she does much more than tattoo people. Achura tells Jack that she can see who people are, that is her gift. She tattoos who they are, on them. Jack asks her what she sees in him, but Achura doesn't want to tell him. After Jack gets angry with her, she tells him that he is "a leader, a great man, and that makes him lonely and frightened and angry." He tells her to mark him, to put that on him. Achura refuses and says that it is against her people. Jack sits her down and takes off his shirt and tells her to do it. She says "There will be consequences." Jack says, "There always are."

The next morning we find out that getting tattooed by Achura had serious consequences. Her friend that gave her, what one would assume to be money, beats up Jack at his beach hut and then tells him to leave; Achura is there at the end of the beach crying.

When the Others are loading Ben into a boat, getting ready to go back 'home', Isabelle reads Jack's tattoo aloud (she had commented on how ironic it was earlier and inquired if Jack knew what it said), the characters read: "He walks amongst us, but is not one of us." Jack tells her, "That's what they say... that's not what they mean."

Help build this page

We want the inside scoop -- Click on EasyEdit to add your knowledge and thoughts!