Jack's changing tattoo

Ok, I've been meaning to post this comment for a while now, and since Folie a Deux made a comment about this episode in the poll about weakest season of Lost, I'm going to go ahead.

To me, the only interesting moment in the whole episode is the fact that, at the end, just before Jack gets beat up, the Thai guys lift up his sleeve and half of this tattoo is missing, even though supposedly Achara just finished it the night before. See here.

Is this a continuity error? Or does it mean that the offensive part of the tattoo (that translates as "He walks among us, but is not one of us" are the four or five symbols at the bottom? Does this mean that the Christmas-tree-looking design done later and wasn't Achara's work? I'm confused.

The first screenshot is from the Pilot, Part 1. -- The whole tattoo we are familiar with is shown.

The second screenshot is from Stranger in a Strange Land, when Jack is being held hostage by the Others on "Alcatraz island." This is well after Achara did his tattoo. Again, Jack has the whole tattoo we know well.

The last screenshot is from Stranger in a Strange Land, the moment when the Thai boys lift his shirt. A moment that happened before the first two screenshots, yet half of the tattoo is missing. Where is the Christmas-tree-looking thing with the green 5?

Wow I didn't notice that or don't remember thinking about it.. I would assume after this last episode of Lost "Something Nice Back Home" that he gets tatoo's as he hit milestones in his life.. Maybe the writting was the first.. Then he added to it.. Then we now see a new one on his back when he is off the island.. Kinda pic telling a story..

Maybe the 5 is because he's number 5 of the Oceanic 6? Maybe each of them have a number as a codename to be used by Widmore and his associates...or whoever gets them off the island? But what does the triangular thingy mean? Does it look familiar to anyone out there in LostFanLand?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wednighter

....I would assume after this last episode of Lost "Something Nice Back Home" that he gets tatoo's as he hit milestones in his life..

Yeah, I don't think that's a big deal that the tattoo wasn't "complete" after you saw it in Stranger in a Strange Land. It just means that Jack merely adds onto it after his initial tattoo and before the crash on the island.

It wouldn't make sense for the 5 to represent anything about the Oceanic 6 since he had to have gotten that tattoo before 815 crashed.

*Spoiler*

Besides all this, IMDB.com reports that those are Matthew Fox's real tattoos (the figures part of it at least).

[quote=jswindle;46210]Yeah, I don't think that's a big deal that the tattoo wasn't "complete" after you saw it in Stranger in a Strange Land. It just means that Jack merely adds onto it after his initial tattoo and before the crash on the island.

POTPIES:
I was wondering if the other part of his tattoo was meant to be a flashback or flashforward in a later season. I can't help but wonder what brainstormed story ideas have been cut since a.) the number of episodes left is a set number and b.) the writers' strike cut 3 episodes this season.

JSWINDLE:
It wouldn't make sense for the 5 to represent anything about the Oceanic 6 since he had to have gotten that tattoo before 815 crashed.

POTPIES:
Well that is true, you got me there. Unless it has to do with all the weird time differences between the real world and the island... I'm thinking of the freighter Doc specifically, whose dead body was found before his throat was cut, technically. (And that totally twanged my head, even though I was kind of expecting it.)