Hawker Kate McGregor-Stewart as Pregnant Wife Production and release The film was written by Joyce Buñuel, the daughter-in-law of surrealist artist Luis Buñuel, based on a story by director Bob Brooks. It was featured in an April 13, 1980 New York Times article spotlighting films being shot on-location in New York City; the article mistakenly identified Rikke Borge as Dern's love interest. The tattoo designs seen in the film are credited to Isadore Seltzer, a prolific illustrator and graphic designer known for drawing many Sesame Street Magazine covers. The film had a contentious post-production and pre-release phase. Producer Joseph E. Levine made edits without informing director Bob Brooks, who wrote an angry letter to Levine accusing him of prioritizing the opinions of "assholes in Los Angeles." Feminist group Women Against Pornography protested the film for allegedly equating violence with love. They defaced the advertisements in the subway, which reportedly delighted Levine, who considered it free publicity. Tellingly, although the release date was announced as November or December 1980 in the NYT article, the film was delayed nearly a year until October 9, 1981. In 2020, a Blu-ray release was planned by Scream Factory, but after going through two release dates, it was scrapped as they could not find any suitable elements for a new master of the movie. Soundtrack The songs "What's Your Name" and "Shot in the Dark" were written by Barry DeVorzon and Michael Towers, and sung by Euca Burrows. Other instrumental music is heard in the film, but an official soundtrack was not released. Critical reception Tattoo earned a Worst Actor Razzie nomination for Dern, who lost to Klinton Spilsbury for his performance in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film two out of four stars. He wrote that he enjoyed the film's first two acts, and singled out Dern's performance as "very good," but thought the film faltered in the triteness of its climax. He wrote,"Tattoo could have been an effective and disturbing movie...[It] opens so promisingly that its crucial scenes are doubly disappointing. Because the film's first hour makes it clear that Tattoo is not intended as just another creepy horror film, the failure of the conclusion is all the more disappointing." New York Times film critic Janet Maslin gave the film a similar review. She praised the two leads, along with Borge and Frey,