The following 2 articles are about gangs and the tattoo work associated with them
Russian criminal tattoos have a complex system of symbols which can be ‘read’ to 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...
Tattoos are associated with lifestyle in many places around the world. For most people the tattoos they have are body art and decorative, but for some, the tattoos have a purpose in their inner circles.
Tattoos done in a Russian prison have a distinct blueish 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.
In addition to voluntary tattooing, tattoos are used to stigmatise and punish individuals within the criminal society. ‘Grins’ may be placed on an individual who fails to pay debts in card games and often have very blatant sexual images, embarrassing the wearer.
The four suits
Spades - the “suit of thieves”.
Clubs - another “criminal” suit.
Diamonds - the “chummy suit” (i.e. stoolpigeons and informers). This suit is usually forcibly applied.
Hearts - a sexual symbol. It marks the wearer out as a “passive homosexual”/sex object within the prison.
Other symbols
Crucifix- a cross worn on the chest signifies a “Prince of Thieves”, the highest possible rank. Or a scene of the crucified Christ, has no religious meaning but it’s the inmate saying he’s been oppressed and sentenced by the authorities just like Jesus. If the crucifix is topped by a crown then it means the wearer is a pakhan - a leader of a thieves family.
‘Grins’ - these are humorous tattoos usually incorporating a grinning face and are often accompanied by text. The butt of the grin/joke in will often be the prison authorities.
Snakes - a snake around the neck/shoulders mean that the wearer feels that the Soviet/Communist party system still has a hold on them, still adversly affecting their lives.
Tigers - signifies an ‘enforcer’, or a sign of an avenger, geared at times at guards and prison authority.
Cats - the cat is associated with the characteristics needed by a thief (slyness). The most common thief tattoo. Normally tattooed as a pair on the upper chest.
Skulls - these are usually worn by high ranking gang members, interpreted to mean a murderer.
Eyes - Various meanings: if on the upper/middle torso they literally mean that the wearer is keeping their eyes open and it isn’t a derogatory/forced tattoo. If placed on lower backside that is to show that the prisoner is used for sexual gratification. If the eyes are tattooed in the lower groin/hip high area (thus creating a ‘face’ when his trousers are dropped - with the penis becoming the nose) someone with that tattoo is known as ‘humiliated’ or ‘a Downcast’.
Barbed wire - Often the prison term in years is shown by the number of ‘barbs’ on the wire.
Swastika/nazi symbols - are a sign of rebellion against Russian prison authority. Doesn’t literally mean that the wearer is a nazi sympathiser.
Stars - stars commonly represent time served; each point indicates a year served in jail or if stars are tattooed on knees it means you bow to no authority.
Double Sig runes - One who does not confess, also tattooed as sign of rebellion to authority, again not usually associated with the Nazi symbol.
Churches - The number of dome towers (cupolas) indicates either number of prison terms or number of years of the sentence.
Setting sun - this tattoo is usually accompanied by birds flying over the horizon. It represents freedom.
Knight or Crusader - a knight in full armor indicates a sadist, an inmate accused of hooliganism, assault and battery. Also indicates prison ‘enforcers’ or tattooed for racist meanings.
Genie - a Genie and a lamp indicate inmates serving time for drug-related crimes.
Spider within a Web - Can indicate a drug addiction. It can also mean that the wearer is a thief. If the spider is shown moving upwards it means the wearer is still an active criminal, if the spider is moving downwards it means that the wearer is intending to leave the thief’s way of life.
Dagger - sexual predator or, if the dagger is tattooed on the shoulders with blood dripping form the end of blade, it means you are a killer, a man to be feared or called upon when in need of an accomplice for a murder.
Bells - Literally signifies that the wearer will serve his full given sentence, from “bell call to bell call”. He cannot get parole because he has been convicted of a very serious crime. Shows high ranking and will get respect in prison.
Candle sticks - wearer is saying he can extinguish your light, beware.
Butterflies - show the wearer is trustworthy, and an escape artist.
Stalin and Lenin faces - considered sacred, so inmates would tattoo the faces over their hearts and vital organs so guards would not hit or shoot them in that spot of the body. Nowadays these tattoos are rarely used.
Sailing Ship - This means that the wearer is willing come along with an escape plan. Anyone planning an escape will know that the wearer will be keen to be a part of it.
Madonna - holding a baby Jesus - wearer has been a thief/criminal from their early days.
Rose - The wearer celebrated a teenage birthday in the zone (prison).
pornographic tattoos - in general these are either grins or forcibily applied because of failure to pay gambling debts or other infractions of the theives code.
In Japan the gang tattoos are much more colorful than most gang related tattoos in other countries. Here is a story about Shoko Tendo.
Shoko Tendo, the daughter of yakuza boss Hiroyasu Tendo, wrote the best selling book “yakuza moon”
Shoko Tendo looks like any other stylish young Japanese woman - until she removes her shirt to reveal the vivid tattoos covering her back and most of her body.
The elaborate dragons, phoenixes and a medieval courtesan with one breast bared and a knife between her teeth are a symbol of Tendo’s childhood as the daughter of a “yakuza” gangster and her youth as a drug-using gang member.
The author of Yakuza Moon, a best-selling memoir just out in English, the 39-year-old Tendo says that police efforts to eradicate the gangsters have merely made them harder to track.
“The more the police push, the more the yakuza are simply going underground, making their activities harder to follow than they ever were before,” she said.
Police say full-fledged membership in yakuza groups fell to 41,500 last year, down from 43,000 in 2005, a decline they attribute to tighter laws against organised crime. The number of yakuza hangers-on, including thugs and members of motorcycle gangs, who are willing to do their dirty work, though, rose marginally to 43,200.
More shocking for many in Japan, where gun-related crime is rare, were a handful of fatal shootings by yakuza earlier this year, including the killing of the mayor of Nagasaki.
Tendo said the shootings were a result of the legal crackdown on yakuza, which has made it harder for them to ply their traditional trades of prostitution, drugs and bid-rigging.
“They’re being forced into a corner, their humanity taken away,” she said. “All the things they used to do for a living have been made illegal, so life has become very hard.”
Experts say this is especially true for gangsters in less affluent parts of Japan, a reflection of the same sort of income gaps that increasingly plague the nation as a whole.
“Yakuza need a lot of money, but depending on where they are, business isn’t going so well,” said Nobuo Komiya, a criminology professor at Tokyo’s Rissho University. “So they turn to guns.”
Descended from medieval gamblers and outlaws, yakuza were long portrayed as latter-day samurai, bound by traditions of honor and duty and living extravagant lives.
Tendo’s father, the leader of a gang linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group, led a “classic” yakuza life replete with Italian suits, imported cars and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Here are some more pics of gang tattoos around the world.
