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Criminal tattoos are classified in different ways. The meaning and histories of criminal tattoos vary from country to country, and they are commonly assumed to be associated with gang membership.[1][2] They could also be a record of the wearer's personal history—such as their skills, specialties, accomplishments, incarceration, world view and/or means of personal expression.[2] Tattoos have been empirically associated with deviance, personality disorders, and criminality.[3][4] There is no direct correlation between tattoos and criminals, but we can observe the developed history of tattoos and their meanings in countries such as Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States.
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The art of tattooing dates back to 8000 BC when it was used as a means of identification amongst different cultures.[5] Ancient Greek and Roman histories, as well as ancient Japanese and Chinese histories possess a record of criminality being associated with tattoos, but it was not until the 16th to 18th century that this notion became more prevalent in other parts of the world. Over time, tattooing began to be used to mark prisoners and those who committed crimes, so law enforcement would be able to monitor those who disrupted and caused harm to communities. As a means of tracking criminals, noting a person's tattoos became an efficient way to document them. It provided a unique descriptor that set a criminal apart from others.[6]
Rebels and lawless individuals started to mark themselves with tattoos to signify their actions which they took pride in or identified with; this could be acts of rebellion, crimes, personal beliefs, and commitment to a certain group.[5] Convicts had knowledge of their tattoos being used to exercise more control over them, but the rebellious, individuality of tattoos proved to be more important.[6]
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Australia
Prisoners who were transported from Britain to Australian penal colonies between 1787 and 1867 were sometimes tattooed with marks intended to signify disgrace, for example, D for deserter. Prisoners often modified these tattoos to conceal the original design or to express wry or rebellious messages.[7] A common prison tattoo in Australia is 'A.C.A.C.' - the initials to a derogatory phrase regarding cops.[citation needed]
France
In France, five dots tattoo resembling the dots on a dice, placed on the hand between index finger and thumb are found on prison inmates. This tattoo represents the individual between the four walls of the prison cell (un homme entre quatre murs—a man between four walls); this also has the same meaning in Russia, Germany[8] and Spain.
Tattoos of three dots on the hand mean "death to cops" (mort aux vaches / flics / poulets / keufs), also used in Germany, "nichts sehen, nichts hören, nichts sagen" ("see/hear/say nothing"= no snitch/ing.)[9]
A single dot on the cheek usually means the wearer is a pimp (point des maquereaux).
A stick figure holding a trident is also a common French prison tattoo.
Italy
Towards the end of the 19th century, Italy implemented the Bertillonage system as a means to identify criminals; this method was used to also target anyone who was a threat to social order and was deemed "suspicious".[10]
Tattoos were not only seen on criminals but it was viewed as a common trait amongst criminals within the Bertillonage system. People with tattoos were set apart from others, and it was used as evidence that they were to be seen as different in the general public. This idea was applied to perceiving someone's psyche and deducing if they are biologically inclined to criminal behavior, as higher pain tolerance, primal nature, and shameless attitudes were associated with a predisposition towards criminal behavior.[10]
Specific, identifiable tattoos are seen within organized crime. "La Stidda," a Mafia-style criminal organization in Sicily, is known for using star tattoos to identify members.[10] This small, five-point star is called a stiddari and is typically placed between the thumb and index finger on the right hand.
Japan
The Edo period in Japan exemplified the strive for internal peace within the country. Tattoos started to be used to mark those who committed crimes which began the correlation between tattoos and criminals. The Meiji restoration period followed the Edo period; Japan aimed to be viewed as more civilized during this time, so tattooing grew to be deemed barbaric and was outlawed throughout the country.[11]
Yakuza, the organized crime syndicate of Japan, dates back to the 17th century and maintains a strong loyalty. A form of committing is by embracing tattoos which make them identifiable within the gang and to the public.[12]
The Yakuza's tattoos would cover large areas of the body. The tattoos could cover arms, chest, back, and legs, but may not be visible when wearing traditional Japanese garments, such as a kimono, due to the specific placement. As a member of the Yakuza, enduring the painful process of tattooing was viewed as a declaration of loyalty and courage.[13] Modern yakuza tattoos, with common symbols and visual motifs, are noted for their similarity to current Western tattoo styles.[14] Current Yakuza have full-body tattoos, typically inked in secret by tattoo artists associated with clans. Due to a clear association between tattoo artistry and crime, the practice was shortly banned following the Meiji restoration period. During the US occupation after World War II, this law was repealed.[15]
Due to the association between the Yakuza and tattoos, the stigmatization of tattoos in Japan has become a part of their cultural norm. As the public grew more knowledgeable of criminal activity, the portrayal of gangs became more evident in popular films, so this grew a specific connotation between a tattoo on an individual and a suspected criminal association.[16] Although Yakuza membership declined after the Anti-Organized Crime Law was enacted in 1991 and enforced in 1992, the gang is still active.[11] As a means of avoiding interactions with gang members in public and the history of the association, tattooed individuals, regardless of gang affiliation, are not permitted to enter a number of establishments due to societal standards and expectations.[12]
Russia
 | This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (February 2024) |
Russian criminal tattoos have a complex system of symbols that can give quite detailed information about the wearer. Not only do the symbols carry meaning, but the area of the body on which they are placed may be meaningful too. The initiation tattoo of a new gang member is usually placed on the chest and may incorporate a rose. A rose on the chest is also used within the Russian mafia. Wearing false or unearned tattoos is punishable in the criminal underworld, usually by removal of the tattoo, followed by beatings and sometimes rape, or even murder. Tattoos can be removed (voluntarily, in the case of loss of rank, new affiliation, "lifestyle" change, etc.) by bandaging magnesium powder onto the surface of the skin, which dissolves the skin bearing the marks with painful caustic burns. This powder is gained by filing "light alloy," e.g., lawnmower casing and is a jailhouse commodity.
"As Russia's leading expert on tattoo iconography, Mr. Arkady Bronnikov can tell the prisoner's story from looking at the designs on his body. The huge spider in a web that is drawn on his skull reveals, in prison tattoo code, that he is a drug addict. Also, he is a repeat offender: The onion domes of a Russian church fan across his shoulder blades, each of the seven domes representing a different stay in prison. Above the church, across the back of his neck, the convict has stenciled, in Russian, "Not just anyone can hold his head this high."... "The more tattoos a convict gets, the more sentences he has served, the more respect he gets in prison," says Mr. Bronnikov. "The tattoos show that he isn't afraid of pain."[17]
Tattoos made in a Russian prison often have a distinct bluish color (due to being made with ink from a ballpoint pen) and usually appear somewhat blurred because of the lack of instruments to draw fine lines. The ink is often created from burning the heel of a shoe and mixing the soot with urine, and injected into the skin utilizing a sharpened guitar string attached to an electric shaver.[contradictory][18]
"In [Russian] prison, the ink for tattoos was manufactured from molten rubber mixed with water and sugar. Artists used sewing needles sharpened on concrete cell floors. Sometimes, portraits of Stalin and Lenin--with or without horns--were in fashion, sometimes monasteries and medieval knights. Occasionally, caricatures of Communists with pig snouts or correctional officers in wolf guise were the rage. Maps of the gulag system, with Russia, portrayed as a giant prison camp, might be etched across someone's back. Crucifixion scenes were popular. Ronald Reagan was even a subject, according to a Russian dictionary of prison slang (Fenya)."[19]
In addition to voluntary tattooing, tattoos are used to stigmatize and punish individuals within the criminal society. These tattoos may be placed on an individual who fails to pay debts in card games, or otherwise breaks the criminal code, and often have very blatant sexual images, embarrassing the wearer. Tattoos on the forehead are sometimes forcibly applied, and designed both to humiliate the bearer and warn others about him or her. They frequently consist of slurs about the bearer's ethnicity, sexual orientation, or perceived cooperation with the prison authorities. They can indicate that the holder is a member of a political group considered offensive by other prisoners (e.g., Vlasovite), or has been convicted of a crime (such as child rape) that is disapproved of by other criminals. They can also advertise that the bearer is "downcast", or of the lowest social caste in prison, usually used for the sexual gratification of higher-ranked inmates. Voluntary facial tattoos signify that the bearer does not expect to be released back into normal society within his lifetime, and will usually consist of tattoos on the eyelids of messages such as "Don't Wake Me Up." They are managed by inserting a metal spoon under the eyelid, so the tattoo needle does not pierce the eye.
Tattoos that consist of political or anti-authoritarian statements are known as "grins". They are often tattooed on the stomach of a thief in law, as a means of acquiring status in the criminal community. A Russian criminologist, Yuri Dubyagin, has claimed that, during the Soviet era, there existed "secret orders" that an anti-government tattoo must be "destroyed surgically", and that this procedure was usually fatal.[citation needed] Tattoos of the portraits of Soviet leaders like Lenin and Stalin were often applied on the chest due to a belief that firing squads were forbidden to shoot at the leaders' pictures.
N. Banerjee wrote in 1992 for The Wall Street Journal about tattoos in Russian prisons:
- "...the pain does deter even the most macho convict from covering his body, all at once, with meaningful pictures. Tattoos are created by instilling pigment in the skin with thousands of needle pricks. In the camps, the process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few years, depending on the artist and his ambition, says Mr. Bronnikov. Because of prison conditions, tattoo artists have to improvise with materials and equipment. For instance, they will draw a picture on a wooden plank, place needles along the lines of the design, cover the needles with ink and stamp the whole tableau on the prisoner's body. Another method is to slice the image onto the skin with a razor and daub the cut with indelible ink. Usually, prisoners manage to get an electric shaver and a syringe with a needle, which they jury-rig into a tattooing machine. Ink is hard to come by, so to make dye, artists will often burn the heel of a shoe, and mix the ash with the prisoner's urine -- a practice convicts believe reduces the chance of infection."[17]
Common body tattoos and their significance (these tattoos are most characteristic of the Old Regime when the Vory V Zakone was more structured in prisons):
- 243 in a badge: signifies the wearer has committed battery on a police officer. Often worn on the arm or hand used for the assault. Taken from the California penal code.
- Barbed wire across the forehead signifies a sentence of life imprisonment without a possibility of parole.[20] Barbed wire on the forearms or around the wrist signifies years served.
- Bells indicate a sentence served in full.
- Birds over the horizon: "I was born free and should be free." Bearer longs for a life outside prison.[20]
- Cat: a career as a thief. A single cat means the bearer worked alone; several cats mean the bearer was part of a gang.[20] The word "cat," in Russian, forms an acronym indicating the wearer's natural home is in prison. Alternately, can signify cleverness.
- Celtic Cross: Part of the racist white power movement. It has also been used to represent crosshairs of a gun, meaning that a wearer is a hitman, and he too will meet a violent end one day.[21]
- Churches, mosques, fortresses, etc., are often tattooed on the chest, back, or hand. The number of spires or towers can represent the years a prisoner has been incarcerated or the number of times he has been imprisoned. A cross at the top of the spire indicates that the sentence was paid in full. The phrase, "The Church is the House of God," often inscribed beneath a cathedral, has the metaphorical meaning, "Prison is the Home of the Thief."
- Cross: A small cross either on the forehead, finger, or between the thumb and forefinger is sometimes seen on convicts as a symbol of serving time in prison. There is another category of tattoos—of rings on the fingers and symbols on the hands—which informs other inmates of the bearer's rank when the bearer is clothed:[22] A cross on the chest can represent a high ranking in the Russian mob.[23]
- Crosses on knuckles: 'Trips to the zone'. 'I've been in prison three times'.
- Devil's head: 'Grin'. 'I hold a grudge against the authorities'.
- Dots on knuckles: number of years served in prison.
- Epaulets: Military badge and uniform are worn on the shoulders. This symbolizes criminal accomplishments.[20] When a skull symbol is portrayed with it, it usually designates a man as a murderer. Epaulets are decorated with certain crests and symbols in the sections where one can see the skull there before conviction, especially when it was of any significance.
- Five dots: Represents time done in prison. Four of the dots represent walls, while the fifth represents the prisoner.[23]
- Madonna and baby Jesus indicates that the bearer is 'clean before his friends' in that he will never betray them to authorities. May also symbolize having become a criminal early in life.
- Mermaid: indicates a conviction of child molestation
- MIR: The Russian word for "peace," an acronym that indicates "only a firing squad will reform me."
- Dagger in neck: Signifies that owner of tattoo cut someone.[24]
- Executioner: Murderer, or that they follow the Thieves' Code[21]
- Goat: Informer, an animal without honor. Probably begrudged as a mark of humiliation.
- Lenin, Stalin, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels: Usually tattooed across the chest or over vital organs. Mostly characteristic of the Old Regime; prisoners would tattoo them because it was believed the firing squads could not shoot the images of USSR's founding fathers.
- Spider or spider web: may symbolize racism or doing time in prison[25]
- Spider Web: If the spider is in the center, the bearer is dedicated to a life of crime; if it is climbing out of the web, the bearer is trying to reform himself. A few other versions are that the wearer is a drug addict, like an insect trapped in a spider's web, he is trapped in some narcotic web, or that it signifies a time in prison as each ring of the spider web represents one year in prison.[23]
- Teardrop tattoo: A teardrop underneath an eye: the wearer was raped in prison[26][27] and tattooed with a teardrop under the eye by the offending party,[26] this was a way of "marking" an inmate as property or to publicly humiliate the inmate as face tattoos cannot be hidden. In West Coast gang culture, the tattoo may signify that the wearer has killed someone.[23][28]
- Tombstones represent the loss of time. You may see the number of years that are served (i.e., five tombstones reading 2001–2005 means the prisoner has done five years).
- SS: Sohranil Sovest - Sign of against prison authorities.[24]
- Stars: Worn on the knees: signifies that an owner 'will kneel before no man'.
- Stars: Worn on the shoulders: Signifies that the owner is a man of discipline, status, and tradition. Men will also receive stars when promoted to "Captain" in the Vory V Zakone.
- Swastika: Against prison authorities. Does not literally mean that the wearer is a Nazi sympathiser.[24]
- Single dot: 'I escaped'.
- SLON: an acronym that spells the Russian word for elephant but which stands for, 'From my early years nothing but misery' or 'Death to cops by knife'.
United States
Tattoos can commonly be found on those related to a gang, as they represent pride in their membership. The symbols and typefaces used will vary and can indicate which gang one may belong to; the location of the tattoo is also notable, as it indicates the level of exposure and potential identification one may want to have in the general public.[29]
One of the most well-known criminal tattoos is the teardrop tattoo.[30] This is more symbolic of criminal activity among West Coast gangs where a teardrop tattoo underneath the eye can indicate whether an individual committed murder or attempted murder.[31][32] Other meanings of this tattoo are indicating time spent in prison or the loss of a loved one associated with a gang.[31]
A common tattoo in American prisons for Hispanic inmates is four dots or three dots. The dots represent that you have earned your keep in your gang. The three dots would represent the 13 of the southern gangs and the same for the northern gangs with four dots :: for 14.[33] Geographic location is commonly referred to, so another identifiable tattoo is an area code (Ex. 213 would represent Los Angeles). Hispanic gangs have a trend of using old English script and incorporating religious themes in their tattoos, as a substantial portion of members and their families are Catholic. Their tattoos are frequently larger and easily visible.[29]
Markers of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white Neo-Nazi prison gang include but are not limited to the letters AB, Celtic imagery, and the number 666.[34] Themes of racism are evident in Aryan Brotherhood gang tattoos through white supremacist language and Nazi references.[29]
Prison tattoos
In the United States, the tattooing of criminals increased in the 1930s, and this could be attributed to tattooing in prisons. Although tattooing is highly prohibited in U.S. prisons, inmates take part and accept the disciplinary action often taken. Studies have shown that inmates would receive tattoos while serving their sentence are more extroverted; they have a sense of belonging and embrace being a prisoner. This trait is coupled with a lack of self-discipline.[5]
Since tattooing in prison is illegal in many jurisdictions, 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. The ink used to create the tattoo requires a certain quality to appear correctly. Inmates can acquire ink a number of ways: street ink from visits or corrections officers or it could be created with a few components. Ink could be made with water, isopropyl alcohol, and black soot. Improvising meant burning various materials to acquire the soot and ingredients containing alcohol such as mouthwash. Improvised tattooing equipment has been assembled from materials such as mechanical pencils, Bic pens, radio transistors, staples, paper clips, or guitar strings.[35]
Certain tattoo designs have developed recognized coded meanings.[36] The code systems can be quite complex, and because of the nature of what they encode, the designs of criminal tattoos are not widely recognized as such to outsiders. Coded prison tattoos commonly found in North America:
- Three dots making a triangle - typically between the thumb and forefinger [36]
- Teardrop - under the eye; multiple meanings, commonly symbolizes committing or attempted murder [31]
- Shamrock - no specific location on body; indicates belonging to Aryan Brotherhood[36]
- The shamrock can include the number 12, referencing the letters "AB"
- Area codes - no specific location on body; gang members will identify with the area code of their neighborhood or gang's location [29]
- Spider web - typically found covering the elbow; white supremacists use this symbol to outwardly express that they have injured or killed [36]
- Clock with no hands - symbolizes time spent in prison and serving a sentence [36]
- The number 13 - demonstrates being a member of the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang [36]
- The number 14 - demonstrates being a member of the Nuestra Familia, a prison gang [36]
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Forced and enslaved prostitutes are often tattooed or branded with a mark of their pimps. Women and girls being forced into prostitution against their will may have their pimps' name or gang symbol inked or branded with a hot iron on their skin. In some organizations involved with the trafficking of women and girls, like the mafias, nearly all prostitutes are marked. Some pimps and organizations use their name or well-known logo, while others use secret signs.[37] In the past, the branding mark was usually small, sometimes hidden between the labia minora. Today, some pimps write their names in big letters all upon the body of the victim.[38]
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- Barrio Azteca
- 18th Street Gang
- Drug cartel
- Gang signal
- Human branding
- HWDP, Polish anti-police acronym
- List of Chinese criminal organizations
- List of criminal enterprises, gangs and syndicates
- MS-13
- Organized crime
- Russian mafia
- Tong (organization)
- Triad (underground society)
- Yakuza
- Aryan Brotherhood
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