User blog comment:LoveWaffle/We Didn't See It Coming - Iron Man 3 and the Future of the MCU/@comment-5977347-20130513205536/@comment-1895174-20130514193449

then why did he have the tattoos?

Because he has a tacky style?

Seriously, I never bought Killian as the actual Mandarin because he's more Mallen than anything. And his boast "I AM THE MANDARIN" may as well have been "I AM THE MASTERMIND OF THIS PLAN" or "I AM THE BAD GUY", so it's just a boast. If tattoos make him the Mandarin, then Trevor Slattery's Captain America.