Popular Prison Tattoos And Their Meanings Explained

1.

Tears - In certain places the teardrop represents a long prison sentence in other places it represents that the inmate is a murderer.

2.

Cobweb Tattoos -These tattoos are pretty mainstream but they are still definitely prison tattoos. They represent a lengthy prison sentence and the spiders trapping prey symbolize prisoners being trapped behind bars.

3.

A Crown With Five Points - The crown is a symbol of the Latin Kings gang which is one of the largest gangs in the US.

4.

White Supremacists - The magic number here is 1488. For white supremacists the number 14 represents a quote from Nazi leader David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children”. The 88 represents the eighth letter in the alphabet twice which is HH. This stands for Heil Hitler because of course it does.

5.

Three Dots On The Eyes - There is no particular gang that this is affiliated with but it is a tattoo that represents the gang life and is usually found on the eye or the hand.

6.

The Five Dots - This is different from the three dots tattoo in that it is representing the time spent in prison. The four dots on the outside represents the four walls and the one in the middle represents the inmate.

7.

Aryan Brotherhood - This is the Aryan Brotherhood tattoo. It is the biggest white supremacist gang in the US. It makes up 1% of the entire prison population but is responsible for 20% of the murders.

8.

Norteño -This tattoo belongs to the Neustra Familia gang. In prison, the gang it is the bitter rival of The Mexican Mafia.

9.

MS 13 - The Mara Salvatrucha gang from El Salvador is one of the most feared gangs in the world. The gang’s tattoos are most commonly displayed on the members’ hands, face and neck.

10.

Cards - Playing cards generally symbolize prisoners that love to gamble and can also symbolize the view that life is a gamble.

11.

EWMN - Again there is no gang affiliation here but this popular knuckle tattoo stands for evil, wicked, mean, nasty and is used to show other inmates what kind of man they are dealing with.