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What Do Arvel Skeen’s Tattoos Mean in Star Wars Andor? Krayt Head & By the Hand Explained

Want to know more about Arvel Skeen's Tattoos? Read this guide.

Arvel Skeens tattoos: a barcode and a hand shape

Star Wars Andor isn’t known for being chock-full of easter eggs, but that doesn’t mean Disney didn’t leave a few clues for clever fans to pick up on. In The Axe Forgets, Arvel Skeen has a few tattoos that Andor recognizes immediately but doesn’t explain well. Here’s everything you need to know about what Arvel Skeen’s tattoos mean.

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What Does the Krayt Head Mean?

The first tattoo Andor sees is the Krayt Head, an important relic of Tusken Raiders, over a barcode. The Krayt Dragon is the most dangerous animal on Tatooine, and yet another reference to Knights of the Old Republic. The bar code could identify Skeen as one of the thousands of prisoners or slaves, likely on Tatooine. References to the old Bioware game could build up to a big reveal or just be a sign that Disney pays close attention to Expanded Universe content.

What Does By the Hand Mean?

Skeen’s second tattoo vaguely looks like a hand, and Cassian identifies it as “By the hand.” This could be a connection to the Hand of Thrawn, an offshoot of the Empire charged with fending off extragalactic threats. Andor also says, “They built a lot of cages,” which implies there is something fishy going on in the Hand of Thrawn that involved beings in cages. This organization is heavily featured in the Hand of Thrawn duology by Timothy Zahn.

That’s all we have for now on what Arvel Skeen’s Krayt Head and by the Hand tattoos mean in Andor. Check out some of our other Andor content, like what pill did Imperial Officer Deedra Meero take, Does Andor survive Rogue One, and what is the Rakatan Empire.

Image Source: Disney and Lucasfilm

About the author

Ryan Bruckner

Ryan Bruckner, a University of Wisconsin grad and cat dad, wrote for Twinfinite from September of 2022 to March of 2023. A large contributor to the site's Pokemon Scarlet & Violet coverage, Ryan also often wrote about Star Wars and the Pokemon TCG.

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