How Do Gangs Come Up With Their Tattoos

Tattoos serve a range of purposes in criminal gangs, and every gang has a more than or less clandestine set of meanings associated with specific designs.

As mysterious as they are intriguing, gang-related tattoos have aroused interest and curiosity for decades.

Gang and prison tattoos

Members of certain criminal gangs and mafia groups in and out of prison behave tattoos imbued with highly specific meanings. These tattoos and their meanings vary from group to grouping, as every gang has its own 'tattoo language', so to speak.

Some gang tattoos are meant as tokens of recognition for the individual's rank and experience, the specific skills they accept, or the crimes they've committed in the course of their activity within the group. These tattoos are done voluntarily, meaning the private has to agree to receive the tattoo.

But gang tattoos aren't e'er a 'positive' thing. Sometimes, they are used as punishment, often given forcibly (without the person'due south consent). Typically, these are placed somewhere highly visible and incommunicable to hide, such as the person's face.

For criminal groups in prisons, tattoos have farther meanings. For instance, the tattoo could indicate the crime the person has committed that resulted in their incarceration.

This tin can either exist a form of positive recognition – if the crime was seen as beneficial to the criminal group – or of punishment – if the criminal offense is something that the group disapproves of. The one-time increases the person'southward standing within the group, while the other is meant to shame them and mark them equally traitors.

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Prison house tattoos can also have more neutral meanings, such equally the number of times the person has been to prison. In some circles, this is marked by crosses on the person'due south knuckles – 1 cross for each prison judgement.

Examples of gang tattoo systems

It would be impossible to listing the tattoos of all the gangs in the world – partly because at that place are so many of them, and partly because this is non exactly a well-researched bailiwick.

Many criminal groups are highly secretive most their markings – understandably – and don't make them public knowledge. Many also use codes and ciphers, such as those adopted by California'due south Crips and Bloods.

The Crips are an infamous gang based in the coastal regions of southern California, locked in bitter rivalry with the Bloods. Alongside the employ of the symbol of a three-pointed or six-pointed crown, the Crips use lawmaking in a lot of their tattoos. One form involves replacing individual messages in a discussion with the letter's number in the alphabet – ane for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, etc.

For case, the numbers 211 tattooed on a Crip member represent 'BK', which in turn means 'Claret Killer' – indicating the individual has killed a member of the rival gang, the Bloods.

The Bloods also use forms of code in their markings. 1 example is the 13/13 nil – splitting the alphabet in one-half and replacing the letters from the first half with those of the second, and vice versa – A becomes N, and Due north becomes A, B becomes O and O becomes B, etc.

As well the utilize of code, Blood members volition often accept the letters MOB tattooed – standing for 'Member of Blood'. The word 'Piru' is likewise common. The original Blood gang was called the Compton Pirus (named after West Piru street in Los Angeles), and then this is a throwback to the gang'south origins. A domestic dog paw is also a common marking.

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Asian gang tattoos

When thinking of criminal-related tattoos, ane of the key examples that volition come to mind are the impressive total-body tattoos of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. Tattooing in Japan has long had a connectedness with criminal activity – hundreds of years agone, the government used facial tattoos to permanently marker and shame criminals.

The mafia adopted this practice and began to mark themselves, to grossly simplify a long and complex history.

As a matter of fact, expansive tattoos are no longer synonymous with mafia affiliation in Japan – it's impractical, for obvious reasons, and draws undue attending. Peculiarly considering that tattooing is generally frowned upon in Japan, so not many individuals deport visible tattoos.

Russian prison tattoos

Of the markings given to Russian criminals in prisons, the known symbols include:

• Cat – common for thieves. A unmarried cat means that the thief acted lonely, while several cats together indicate theft as part of a criminal group. The head of a cat is also considered a good luck tattoo for a thief, though when worn on the breast, information technology signifies the criminal'south disregard and hatred for law enforcement.
• Scarab protrude – also a symbol of good luck for thieves, usually symbolizing a pickpocket.
• Star – by and large, each bespeak of the star represents a year in prison. Elite members of organized crime in Russian federation, known as Vor Five Zakone ('thief by law'), use a star with 4 large arms, iv medium ones, and 8 modest ones. A Vor Five Zakone star on each shoulder indicates a position of loftier authority within the gang, while stars on the legs or knees mean that the person won't kneel earlier anybody.
• Cross – subordination or slavery. Tin be given forcibly as penalisation.
• Manacles – representing 5 or more years in prison.
• Military insignia – oftentimes signify that the prisoner was a high-ranking criminal prior to being incarcerated.
• Skull – usually means that the prisoner is a murderer.
• Barbed wire – when placed on the forehead, it means the prisoner is serving a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
• Birds on the horizon – signify the longing for freedom and hateful 'I was born costless and should exist gratis'.

General criminal tattoo symbols

Alongside gang-specific or prison-specific tattoos, there are a number of symbols and designs that can carry universal meanings in the criminal underworld.

• Tiger – power and strength
• Spider web – time spent in prison or time spent 'caught in the spider web' of the inescapable gang lifestyle
• Three dots – arranged in a triangle, they stand for 'prison house, infirmary, cemetery' – the typical path of a gang fellow member. In some circles, this would be the first tattoo received by an individual before condign a total fellow member of the gang. This design is associated primarily with the Mexican Mafia
• 5 dots – signifying 'a circumvolve of friends' and the protection that being a member of a criminal group affords. Originally a Vietnamese symbol, information technology's used well-nigh commonly by the Bloods, Gangster Disciples, and Asian triads
• Masks or clown faces – virtually commonly associated with Asian and Latin gangs, these commonly mean 'play now, pay later'.

Final words

Let'south end on an obligatory discussion of caution: near gangs take their individual tattoos extremely seriously. Some tattoos are earned, in the example of those marking a rank, skill, or experience – others are a class of punishment for serious transgressions against the rules of the gang.

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As such, it would be unwise to get out and go a tattoo that is associated with a specific gang and has a meaning therein. In the effect that the 'unearned' tattoo should be discovered, this could accept grave consequences for the person. It'southward therefore highly inadvisable to adopt gang markings purely for artful purposes.

Source: https://thestyleup.com/gang-tattoos/

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