Prison tattooing is the practice of creating and displaying tattoo

Tattoo

A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...

s in a prison environment. They are often used to portray gang

Gang

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

 membership, and are often used as a form of code and have hidden meanings. However, due to the lack of proper equipment and sterile environments in prison, the practice poses health risks.

Process

Since tattooing in prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 is illegal in the United States, 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. Improvised tattooing equipment has been assembled from materials such as mechanical pencils, magnets, radio transistors, staples, paper clips or guitar strings. The ink used also needs to be improvised, either taken from pens or made using melted plastic, soot mixed with shampoo, or melted Styrofoam

Styrofoam

Styrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...

. Prison tattooing is not generally done freely, and the tattooists are normally paid with anything from stamps and cigarettes to actual cash.

Motifs

There are many different symbols and numbers that represent multiple gangs or groups. Certain images like spider webs and teardrops can represent the length of sentences, or the number people that the wearer has killed, respectively. Tattoos are also used to communicate who the inmates are as people - for example, white supremacists will display prominent tattoos to show their beliefs. Some common symbols used in this manner are the number 311, representing the KKK; the percentile 100%, a white supremacist indicator of racial purity; Valknut

Valknut

The Valknut is a symbol consisting of three interlocked triangles, and appears on various Germanic objects. A number of theories have been proposed for its significance....

s; swastika

Swastika

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

s; three dots arranged as a triangle, meaning for "mi vida loca" or "my crazy life"; clock with no hands to show "doing time"; spider webs; or the number 13.

One common prison tattoo is the five dots tattoo

Five Dots Tattoo

The five dots tattoo is a tattoo of five dots arranged in a quincunx, usually on the outer surface of the hand, between the thumb and the index finger...

, a quincunx

Quincunx

A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, that is five coplanar points, four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center...

 usually placed on the hand, with different meanings in different cultures.

Risks

Since the tattoo machines are homemade and efficient means of sterilization

Sterilization (microbiology)

Sterilization is a term referring to any process that eliminates or kills all forms of microbial life, including transmissible agents present on a surface, contained in a fluid, in medication, or in a compound such as biological culture media...

 are not available, there are many health risks involved. Deadly diseases like hepatitis

Hepatitis

Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...

 and HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

/AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 can be passed from one person to the next through shared needles. Also, the makeshift ink can damage the skin, cause permanent scarring, or contain harmful chemicals. If the inmates are found tattooing, their materials are confiscated and they are put into solitary confinement

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

for approximately 15 days. If an inmate is caught with a new tattoo (obvious with redness and swelling), they are charged.