Cross-Cultural Prison Tattoos

Gang and prison tattoos often vary according to nationality, though a few symbols seem to be universal. Skulls usually mean murderers, for example, and barbed wire across the forehead denotes a life sentence.


Prison tattoos speak an intricate language, and they really have much more in common with tribal tattooing than with body art as most of us know it. And though the policy of providing safe tattooing in prisons is highly controversial, it does have merit on the basis of disease prevention. Prison tattoos are here to stay, and inmates have always found ways of tattooing with the most rudimentary of equipment.