Anyone know what this tattoo signifies? I’ve seen it several times, seems to be three dots in a trinagular pattern, typically on the backside of the hand behind the thumb and pointy finger. We’ve guessed that its some sort of gang or jailhouse tattoo but are not sure.
Is it this tattoo?
Arjuna34
Nope. It’s much simpler and I’ve only seen in on shady folk (leading to the guess of prisoners or gang members). Hopefully this’ll turn out OK in ASCII:
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Just three dots in a triangle.
And it didn’t. It’s supposed to be a equilateral triangle, not a right one.
It means that some Quake enthusiast has his laser site on you. DUCK! =)
I’ve wondered myself.
I had a client from the Netherlands who had this tattoo. I never asked him about it, but was always curious.
I do know the guy had spent some time in some sort of home for troubled youth.
A friend of mine from some years back had a similar tattoo (on his forearm, as I recall). According to him, it was to provide a “point of reference” for his recently completed radiological cancer treatment. Not clear enough on the details of such treatment to know what precisely this means. Why a large number of people would have it on their hand or thumb, I have no idea.
Oh, he was one of the shady, Fundamentalist Christian types (they’re a gang, you know). 
Wasn’t that the tattoo used by SPECTRE, headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld?
Also strikes me that it might the the mark of the Green Gang Triad, out of Shanghai?
It started as a LA gang tattoo, popular with Hispanic gangs. It represents “surenos” (often shortened to “sur”), who are the gang member’s slain comrades. My source? Folks that I’ve arrested and interviewed as a private security officer. Of course, its popularity spread, and I’m sure the majority of the people now wearing it have no gang affiliation.
According to http://members.tripod.com/~ibfletch/index-faq.html
Much thanks- that jibes with what we had thought. We figured out the teardrop and the masks but this tattoo had us stumped.
So what does all the Latino gang stuff have to do with my client, who, until I met him, had never been to the US?
My Dutch client, that is.
The 3dots on your hand means “My Crazy Life” : . ‘Mi Vida Loca’:smack:
Huh, I thought it meant 11 years late to the party.
I recently saw another interpretation of the 3 dots as “hospital, jail, grave.” It doesn’t speak any more highly of the bearer than membership in a particular gang.
Those are not tattoos you are seeing. They are inherited body marks. They are only found on aliens originally from the 4th Gentrosphere. These forms are usually found in colder climates and usually wear gloves or mittens so that their marks can not be readily seen.
You are lucky.
I’ve also seen it on white trash Peckerwoods, and have read that it indicates White Supremacist sympathies. To be quite specific, one source said that it means “I hate niggers,” but I have not been able to locate that source again. The placement of the tat in the web of the hand between the thumb and forefinger may be critical; the ‘Mi Vida Loca’ tat, as I understand it, is or at least can be located elsewhere.
The three dots between thumb and index finger can mean almost anything. “Mi Vida Loca” is common, but so is “faith, hope, love”. In Europe I have heard it referred to as “the hobo tattoo” - signifying that the person has lived as a hobo for some time. I have heard older sailors here in Denmark call it “the sailer tattoo” as well. I have never heard about any references to white supremacy stuff, though.
It sounds like a recipe for crazy misunderstandings, if this thread is any indication!