Many people have seen the 2014 film John Wick which follows an ex-hitman around on his journey to exact revenge on a Russian mob family who’s arrogant, young “prince” son set John Wick (Keanu Reeves) into his killing spree.

One thing many will notice when watching this action-packed movie is John Wick’s tattoo on his back. After seeing this, one would assume this tattoo has a lot of meaning because of Wick’s past. In this post we will talk about this tattoo and our translation to the piece.

John Wick Plot

John Wick had recently lost his wife to a terminal illness and was still reeling from the loss. The last thing she left him was a beagle puppy that was named Daisy. This gift was to help the former assassin move on with his life and potentially find new meaning.

John runs into to Iosef Tarasov, son of Russian mob boss Viggo Tarasov, who decides to get mouthy with John. Wick, being “retired”, moved on from the incident and went home. However, Iosef wasn’t going to let this go and went to Wick’s place to pay him a visit. In this visit, Iosef and his crew bust up Wick’s place, knock Wick out, steal his car and the kicker, killed his dog.

This brings Wick out of retirement to exact revenge on Iosef and the whole family. Wick carefully orchestrates a flurry of destruction against the whole family who know full well who Wick is now.

John Wick Tattoo Meaning

This leads us into the meaning of Wick’s tattoo on his back which happens to be relevant to the movie plot. The tattoo says “Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat” across the top of his back with praying hands under the Latin writing.

Now, many might think this phrase comes from the US military groups who have the motto that states “fortes fortuna juvat” or fortune favors the bold, as a slogan for many years. However, there is a quite a difference between this slogan and what is on John Wicks back. Many also think this phrase in Christian when in fact, it is quite the opposite as it is a proverb about Fortuna, the pagan goddess. Not only this, but some might guess of its non-Christian meaning by the way John Wick slaughters those that cross him.