In Iron Man 3 at one point you get a glimpse of the back of the Mandarin's neck. If you look closely there is a tattoo that appears to be of Captain America’s shield.
Is there any plot significance to this being there, or is it possibly just some sort of plug or "Easter Egg" so to speak for Captain America? (I saw a form of this question on filmschoolrejects.com and thought it was interesting enough to share here.)
It's not exactly Cap's shield, but a Mandarin/Terrorist riff on the design.
According to Shane Black, the director:
[The Captain America tattoo on the back of The Mandarin’s neck] was actually part of the design of the Mandarin. He’s very “cobbled together”. It’s essentially a Captain America shield with an anarchy symbol in the middle of it. It’s a corruption of America again.
Co-writer Drew Pierce continues:
It was that brilliant kind of mash up vibe of, “How would a think tank create a terrorist?” And the way that they would do it in their own wanky way is to put together a mood board of all of the symbols of modern Western power. And I think post The Battle Of New York, Cap’s shield would be one of them.
