Prison tattoos

Prison tattooing is the practice of creating and displaying tattoos in a prison environment. Present-day American and Russian prisoners may convey gang membership, code, or hidden meanings for origin or criminal deeds. Lack of proper equipment and sterile environments lead to health risks such as infection or disease (hepatitis, AIDS) from contaminated needles.

Since tattooing in prison is illegal in the United States, the inmates do not have the proper equipment necessary for the practice. This forces inmates to find ways to create their own tattooing devices out of their belongings. Improvised tattooing equipment has been assembled from materials such as mechanical pencils, magnets, radio transistors, staples, paper clips or guitar strings. The ink used also needs to be improvised, either taken from pens or made using melted plastic, soot mixed with shampoo, or melted Styrofoam. Prison tattoos are not generally applied free of charge, and the tattooists are normally paid with anything from stamps and cigarettes to actual cash.

There are many different symbols and numbers that represent multiple gangs or groups. Certain images like spider webs can represent the length of sentences. The well-known teardrop tattoo may mean one for each murder performed. Tattoos are also used to communicate who the inmates are as people - for example, white supremacists will display prominent tattoos to show their beliefs. Some common symbols used in this manner are the percentile 100%, a white supremacist indicator of racial purity; Valknuts; swastikas. Three dots arranged as a triangle, mean "mi vida loca" or "my crazy life" to Mexican inmates linked to the Mexican Mafia, while four dots have the same meaning but are found on Mexican gang members associated with the Nuestra Familia; a clock with no hands represents "doing time"; spider webs are a symbol of being trapped; or the number 13 to signify being unlucky.

One common prison tattoo is the five dots tattoo, a quincunx usually placed on the hand, with different meanings in different cultures.

Mostly seen in the UK but used elsewhere too, a common prison tattoo is four dots tattooed across the knuckles of the criminal which stands for ACAB (All Coppers Are Bastards). Or a dot on each hand in between the thumb and forefinger, one meaning going into prison and one meaning they have completed their sentence.

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