Tattoo artist Karl Kinsky, Bruce Dern, is approached to collaborate with renowned photographer Halsey, Leonard Frey, on a project that would place his tattoo work on temporary canvases for swimsuit models. Despite his misgivings, he agrees after seeing photographs of the striking model Maddy, Maud Adams.
Maddy arrives late to the shoot, but the two quickly connect when she compliments Kinsky’s tattooed arms and recognizes the Japanese influence behind the designs. After the session, Kinsky quietly eavesdrops on Maddy and her flirtatious guitarist boyfriend, Buddy, John Getz. Maddy complains of having had to dope herself to sleep because of Buddy’s irregular hours. She invites Kinsky to dinner, where he asserts a tense sense of control toward the maître d′, and then warns of his willingness to confront Maddy’s ex-boyfriend Albert for using profanity and drunkenly flirting with her. They depart and go to Maddy’s apartment. She invites him in, but he declines, claiming he needs to catch the last train home. Instead, he visits a sex show and challenges a peep-show performer in a provocative manner.
The following day, Kinsky surprises Maddy in Central Park with flowers. He confronts her about the sleeping pills and invites her to dine with him at his apartment. She grows curious about his tattoo equipment and his artistic process. Kinsky shares his theory that women who get tattoos—whom he calls “the mark”—do so as a way to belong or to claim a sense of identity. They go upstairs to eat while listening to Buddy’s music. Kinsky urges Maddy that she deserves better than Buddy’s hands-on approach, even as she resists his rigid standards. She calls him “old-fashioned,” but a spark leads to an intimate moment as she suggests they might meet again. The two consider a future together, but Kinsky is wary of commitments. Maddy bluntly states, “People don’t make commitments when they fuck anymore,” a line that cuts through the dinner-table mood and echoes the power dynamics at play.
That night, the two plan to attend the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Japanese art exhibition. Maddy sends her friend Sandra, Frederikke Borge, to inform Kinsky that Maddy is out of town and to retrieve the modeling tapes; Kinsky leaves a message on her answering machine when no one answers at the apartment, then returns to his family home to show the tapes to prospective buyers, only to declare they are not for sale.
Back at Maddy’s place, she ends up kicking Buddy and his jazz band out for keeping her awake. While she cleans, Kinsky arrives and incapacitates her with a chloroform-soaked rag. The next morning, she wakes to find her chest, shoulders, and back tattooed with delicate floral patterns. She screams, realizing she has become a hostage. Kinsky tells her he is not finished, and the process continues as the ink spreads. The tattoos have been partially colored in the next day. Maddy makes a failed escape attempt; in response, Kinsky has her call Buddy at knifepoint to tell him she won’t be coming home. Recognizing the danger, Maddy agrees to “wear the mark” in exchange for her safety.
As the tattooing nears completion, Kinsky forces Maddy to masturbate while he watches from another room, the act echoing the peep show she had witnessed earlier. He orgasms as she begins to weep. She lashes out, accusing him of not being a real man and instead demanding intercourse. She finds a shard of the mirror to kill him, but is discovered. The situation grows more violent and desperate as Kinsky continues tattooing her body, and Maddy appears to resign herself to her fate.
> It’s all finished.
They are naked as he disrobes them both and begins to rape her. In a final act of defiance, Maddy seizes the tattoo gun and drives it into Kinsky’s back. As he dies, Maddy sits up, his limp body draped across her lap, strokes his hair, and stares off into the distance, a stark portrait of survival carved into her own flesh.
