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Prison tattoos represent a thriving and often controversial subculture of the tattoo community. Though sometimes crude in style and technique, there may be no style of tattoo that is as full of symbolism and meaning as these forms of body art. Prison tattoos have been around since Ancient Greece when they would mark criminals with tattoos so they could be identified if they tried to escape. (Is it any surprise that the Latin word for tattoo is ‘stigma.’?) In Japan, prison tattoos were the only form of body art deemed acceptable and found new life in the Yakuza, or Japanese mafia, who helped spread the practice of tattooing all around the world. Today prison tattoos are usually used by inmates to identify themselves (and the gang they may be a part of) and/or the crime that they are serving time for. Some are done in the old-school Polynesian way with simple ink and needle, while most are done with the use of a motor, pen ink, and guitar string in a sort of makeshift prison tattoo machine. This is why most prison tattoos are blue in color—it’s the only color ink they can get. Oftentimes prison tats will identify the person by their name or their CDC#, or prison ID. More often they are ways to identify which gang an inmate belongs to. Prison tattoos that show an eagle with a snake in its mouth or a sombrero covering a machete are both tats of the Nuestra Familia and other sects of the Mexican Mafia. While the swastika is an easy prison tattoo to identify with the Aryan Brotherhood, so are tats that say “100% Pure” or pictures of a bluebird indicative of the White Power movement. If a prison tattoo is any other color than blue or black, then it probably wasn’t done in prison. Many parolees get tattoos of this kind on the outside to commemorate the time they did and their newfound freedom—or perhaps to show affiliation to a gang that they are still a member of. If you think prison tattoos are cool and want to get one, just be really aware that these styles of tats carry a lot of coded meanings and be sure not to unintentionally send off messages that you don’t want people to see---or read. |
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