What Does Free Hand Tattoo Mean

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

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

Gang and prison house tattoos

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

Some gang tattoos are meant as tokens of recognition for the private'southward rank and feel, the specific skills they have, or the crimes they've committed in the class of their action inside the grouping. These tattoos are done voluntarily, meaning the individual has to agree to receive the tattoo.

But gang tattoos aren't always a 'positive' thing. Sometimes, they are used every bit punishment, oftentimes given forcibly (without the person'due south consent). Typically, these are placed somewhere highly visible and impossible to hide, such as the person's confront.

For criminal groups in prisons, tattoos take further meanings. For instance, the tattoo could bespeak the crime the person has committed that resulted in their incarceration.

This tin can either exist a form of positive recognition – if the criminal offense was seen every bit beneficial to the criminal group – or of punishment – if the crime is something that the group disapproves of. The sometime increases the person's continuing within the grouping, while the other is meant to shame them and mark them as 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'south knuckles – i cross for each prison house judgement.

Examples of gang tattoo systems

It would be impossible to list the tattoos of all the gangs in the world – partly considering there are then many of them, and partly considering this is non exactly a well-researched field of study.

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

The Crips are an infamous gang based in the littoral regions of southern California, locked in biting rivalry with the Bloods. Alongside the use of the symbol of a iii-pointed or half dozen-pointed crown, the Crips use code in a lot of their tattoos. One course involves replacing individual messages in a word with the letter's number in the alphabet – ane for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, etc.

For instance, the numbers 211 tattooed on a Crip fellow member correspond 'BK', which in plow means 'Claret Killer' – indicating the individual has killed a member of the rival gang, the Bloods.

The Bloods too employ forms of code in their markings. 1 example is the thirteen/xiii zip – splitting the alphabet in half and replacing the messages from the beginning half with those of the second, and vice versa – A becomes Due north, and N becomes A, B becomes O and O becomes B, etc.

Also the utilise of code, Blood members will oft have the letters MOB tattooed – continuing for 'Member of Blood'. The give-and-take 'Piru' is too mutual. The original Blood gang was called the Compton Pirus (named after West Piru street in Los Angeles), then this is a throwback to the gang'southward origins. A dog hand is likewise a common marking.

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Asian gang tattoos

When thinking of criminal-related tattoos, one of the key examples that will come to listen are the impressive full-body tattoos of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. Tattooing in Japan has long had a connectedness with criminal activity – hundreds of years ago, the authorities used facial tattoos to permanently mark and shame criminals.

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

As a affair of fact, expansive tattoos are no longer synonymous with mafia amalgamation in Japan – it's impractical, for obvious reasons, and draws undue attention. Particularly considering that tattooing is generally frowned upon in Japan, so not many individuals bear 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 lone, while several cats together indicate theft as office of a criminal grouping. The head of a cat is as well considered a good luck tattoo for a thief, though when worn on the chest, it signifies the criminal'due south condone and hatred for police force enforcement.
• Scarab beetle – as well a symbol of good luck for thieves, unremarkably symbolizing a pickpocket.
• Star – by and large, each point of the star represents a year in prison. Elite members of organized crime in Russian federation, known as Vor Five Zakone ('thief past police'), employ a star with 4 large arms, 4 medium ones, and eight small ones. A Vor 5 Zakone star on each shoulder indicates a position of high authority within the gang, while stars on the legs or knees hateful that the person won't kneel before anybody.
• Cantankerous – subordination or slavery. Can be given forcibly every bit penalisation.
• Manacles – representing v or more years in prison.
• Military insignia – often signify that the prisoner was a high-ranking criminal prior to existence incarcerated.
• Skull – usually means that the prisoner is a murderer.
• Barbed wire – when placed on the forehead, information technology means the prisoner is serving a judgement of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
• Birds on the horizon – signify the longing for liberty and mean 'I was built-in gratis and should be gratuitous'.

Full general criminal tattoo symbols

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

• Tiger – power and strength
• Web – time spent in prison or fourth dimension spent 'caught in the web' of the inescapable gang lifestyle
• Three dots – arranged in a triangle, they correspond 'prison house, hospital, cemetery' – the typical path of a gang member. In some circles, this would be the first tattoo received by an individual before becoming a full member of the gang. This pattern is associated primarily with the Mexican Mafia
• Five dots – signifying 'a circle of friends' and the protection that being a member of a criminal group affords. Originally a Vietnamese symbol, it's used most commonly by the Bloods, Gangster Disciples, and Asian triads
• Masks or clown faces – most commonly associated with Asian and Latin gangs, these unremarkably mean 'play now, pay afterwards'.

Terminal words

Let's cease on an obligatory word of caution: most gangs take their private tattoos extremely seriously. Some tattoos are earned, in the case of those marking a rank, skill, or feel – others are a class of punishment for serious transgressions against the rules of the gang.

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As such, information technology would be unwise to go out and get a tattoo that is associated with a specific gang and has a meaning therein. In the outcome that the 'unearned' tattoo should exist discovered, this could have grave consequences for the person. It'due south therefore highly inadvisable to adopt gang markings purely for aesthetic purposes.

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

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