Homemade and Jailhouse Tattoos

[YOMONEY]

Third that motion. Prison work, well, the technique could be, I've seen blackwork come out of Statesville looks better than anything I've seen in a "legit" parlor, but I've never seen anyone get hit with kanji and all the other oriental type work that boy is wearinng.

I have Brothers that are sleeved, that have full back pieces, that have their legs covered, but it's all "street" themed, if ya catch my drift.

.02

thats true. i actually saw someshit on one of those mnsbc shows, with some guy who dropped out of la eme, he was getting really into asian studies and shit like that and had a bunch of japanese work..

- - - Updated - - -

Seems like there's a book to be published or a documentary to be made.

no doubt. ive thought about a book being in order for a while. some of the shit id see in county, that guys got done in prison, or even on the streets is pretty sick here (the southwest). guys come out with some pretty impressive chicano and native work.

[Petri Aspvik]

thats true. i actually saw someshit on one of those mnsbc shows, with some guy who dropped out of la eme, he was getting really into asian studies and shit like that and had a bunch of japanese work..

Was it this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3Cl8uCHvs

(6:30 you can see the tattoos)

[YOMONEY]

^yes! i couldnt remember the tattoos, only that they stuck out caue there was some japanese stuff on a prison dude..

[thesandmanisme]

Prison tattoos! Yes indeed. I have many. I have built the machines, made the ink, and sat in the cell for many, many, hours and days, doin tat work. I have seen some tattoos that look like, well, whoever did that work probably got a good asswhoopin'. And on the other hand, I have seen some prison tattoos that are mind boggling. Single needle, which is a guitar string bent into a pencil eraser off-center. the eraser is pushed onto the driveshaft of a cassette walkman moter. This is all assembled on a toothbrush that has been cut down heated up and bent 90 degrees at the top to support the motor that is fastened with whatever kind of tape is available. We would remove the 'ball', from the bic ball point pen, and there you have it. If you build the machine correctly, they will work like a champ. The best 'ink' was lamp black. Soot from a candle. All this and a lot of TIME, and in the right hand, will produce some very impressive work.

[Dan S]

"Lamp black" or candle-soot...in a joint in Kali? Dude...where'd you cell?

[Brock Varty]

"Lamp black" or candle-soot...in a joint in Kali? Dude...where'd you cell?

Alcatraz brah...

[gougetheeyes]

Bumpin' it.. @thesandmanisme anything to add? I just got Vol. II of the Russian Prison Tattoos book (finally) -- shit is lewd and crude as they come.

[thesandmanisme]

Yeah, lewd, crude. And nothin ta lose. Most of those guys will never get out of prison. So instead of the tattoo being 'Art', its more of an intimidation tool. Like the gangbangers in the city, the little guy has to cover his face and head with his gang crap to make himself a badazz. LOL. Too each his own I suppose.

[Dan S]

My main Brother is going back inside at the end of the month, I won't see him again for, looks like, seven years. Most of his work is jailhouse, and he's pretty well covered. What isn't jailhouse is representing from back in the day.

Easy to disrespect someone online.

[JAllen]

My main Brother is going back inside at the end of the month, I won't see him again for, looks like, seven years. Most of his work is jailhouse, and he's pretty well covered. What isn't jailhouse is representing from back in the day.

Easy to disrespect someone online.

As mentioned before, I'd still be interesting in seein some pictures man. If you want I can give you my email address in case you don't want to post them up. I'll keep them strictly for personal reference. I've been trying to compile some jailhouse stuff. It'd be nice to see some from different places.

[gougetheeyes]

My main Brother is going back inside at the end of the month, I won't see him again for, looks like, seven years. Most of his work is jailhouse, and he's pretty well covered. What isn't jailhouse is representing from back in the day.

Easy to disrespect someone online.

Sorry to hear that Dan. Can't remember, did you have any done or was it all in shops? This is a world I have zero familiarity with and like @JAllen mentioned, would definitely be into seeing some stuff.

In the meantime, here's a link to photographer Araminta de Clermont's LIFE AFTER series on South African prison gangs. Araminta de Clermont - work - Life After

[kylegrey]

In the meantime, here's a link to photographer Araminta de Clermont's LIFE AFTER series on South African prison gangs. Araminta de Clermont - work - Life After

South Africa's no joke those portraits perfectly illustrate that . I remember a comment about how some Philly tattoo Convention people looking "hardened" by life well compared to these guys they look like the Vienna Boys Choir .

[Dan S]

As mentioned before, I'd still be interesting in seein some pictures man. If you want I can give you my email address in case you don't want to post them up. I'll keep them strictly for personal reference. I've been trying to compile some jailhouse stuff. It'd be nice to see some from different places.

I've still got one piece of jailhouse, but the rest I covered. I have been going through my pix, and I have some picked out I may post, but I'm going to have to do a lot of cropping and blacking-out. Now, none of these are pix of the tattoos, they are, mostly, pictures of brothers representing, some in prison, some on the street, and you can see tattoos. Some clearly, some not so clearly. If that would be of interest, I'll get some up, but if you really want to see the tattooing plainly, most of them won't interest you.

I tattooed a purple daisy on the lower calf of a fairly notorious sniper/killer from back in the early seventies...

[jayessebee]

Ive got several homemade handpokes, they were all done by 'real' artists though, some in my house, some not haha

[Jack]

@Dan S I'd be interested in seeing, literally, anything from your life.

[Dan S]

@Dan S I'd be interested in seeing, literally, anything from your life.

I'm not the best Photoshop guy, but lemme work on some of them, see what I can get up here.

[JAllen]

I've still got one piece of jailhouse, but the rest I covered. I have been going through my pix, and I have some picked out I may post, but I'm going to have to do a lot of cropping and blacking-out. Now, none of these are pix of the tattoos, they are, mostly, pictures of brothers representing, some in prison, some on the street, and you can see tattoos. Some clearly, some not so clearly. If that would be of interest, I'll get some up, but if you really want to see the tattooing plainly, most of them won't interest you.

I tattooed a purple daisy on the lower calf of a fairly notorious sniper/killer from back in the early seventies...

Yeah man, would be interested for sure. Honestly I'm not as interested in just close ups of individual tattoos as I am the pictures of dudes with their work.

[eisen777]

I'd like a Dan S blog with stories and pictures and rants on here.

[Dan S]

[insaniity]

I've had a young guy come into the shop i apprentice in, with outline looking tribal thing taking up half of his face *gang sign*, Nearly impossible but he is going for a cover-up in bio-mechanical!

[Dan S]

- - - Updated - - -

[thesandmanisme]

7 years. That's a long time. The longest stretch for me was 2-1/2. Im done, not goin back, too old for that crap.

[thesandmanisme]

Russian criminal tattoos have a complex system of symbols which 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. Tattoos can be voluntarily removed (for loss of rank, new affiliation, “life style” 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.

Tattoos done in a Russian prison have a distinct bluish color 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.[5]

In addition to voluntary tattooing, tattoos are used to stigmatize and punish individuals within the criminal society. They 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 usually 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 collusion with the prison authorities. They can indicate that the bearer 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) which is disapproved of by other criminals.

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

Motifs

Common tattoos and their significance:

Barbed wire tattooed across the forehead signifies a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Birds over horizon: “I was born free and should be free”

Cat: a career as thief. A single cat means the bearer worked alone; several cats mean the bearer was part of a gang.

Churches, 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 number of times he has been imprisoned. 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.”

Madonna and baby Jesus indicates the person has been a thief since childhood.

Dagger: sex offender

Executioner: Murderer

Rose (white-dried): Death is preferable to loss of virtue.[6]

Spider or spider web: may symbolize racism or doing time in prison[7]

Spider Web: Worn on left elbow and symbolizes that the wearer is a predator and highly dangerous, spiders are associated with hunters, they wait patiently to capture their prey and then kill it. Also, it may symbolize that the wearer has killed before or is willing to. Wearer has to be in a high rank to wear this tattoo.

Tombstones represent the loss of time. You may see the number of years that are served (i.e. 5 tombstones reading 2001 – 2005 means the prisoner has done 5 years).

SS: two sig runes were the symbol of the Schutzstaffel, Nazi insignia

Stars: Worn on the knees: signifies that the owner will kneel before no man, or no one.

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”.

Skulls: Signifies murder, if the murder was significant enough to merit the tattoo. Military insignia and uniform epaulets are worn on the shoulders. This symbolizes criminal accomplishments. 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 prior to conviction, especially when it was of any significance.

Swastika: Symbol of the Nazi party.

If a Russian person that is not in the Russian Mafia wears any of these tattoos he will be penalized with death if caught.

[Scott R]

Russian criminal tattoos have a complex system of symbols which can give quite detailed information about the wearer.

If a Russian person that is not in the Russian Mafia wears any of these tattoos he will be penalized with death if caught.

Most of these tattoos are popular outside of russian prisions. It would suck if a Russian really couldnt get any of these images for fear of death.

[Dan S]

Most of these tattoos are popular outside of russian prisions. It would suck if a Russian really couldnt get any of these images for fear of death.

Actually, very few of the actual "signifying" tattoos are worn by anyone but an "in-law" in Russia. There are some heavy possibilities for someone who hasn't earned them. Same here, if someone was to put on so-called "gang" symbols, things could get hairy right chop-chop.

Sandman, you should credit the article you posted.

http://createvisualculture.wordpress.com/cruciformity/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Russian-Criminal-Tattoo-Encyclopedia/180948251928150?sk=info

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_tattoo

Same lame shit is regurgitated all over the web.