# Percentage of Prisoners with Tattoos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151 "2010-04-23T20:29:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/1 "2010-04-23T20:29:38Z")
Including people who got a tattoo previous to being incarcerated, but ignoring people in low-security prisons and ignoring people over the age of ~50, what percentage have at least one tattoo? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/2 "2010-04-23T20:50:01Z")
And percent of 30 to 40 year old middle class Moms have them? And which is a larger number? ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/3 "2010-04-23T21:39:21Z")
Why do you want to ignore people in low-security prisons and people over the age of 50? You don’t think they have them too? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/4 "2010-04-23T21:50:09Z")
I’m not sure anybody is collecting that data. [But I did find this blog post that lists the most popular tattoos among Missouri inmates in 1997.](http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2005/09/top_tattoos_of_.html) Crosses were the most popular tattoo by far. There were more crosses than the second- and third-most common tattoos (roses and hearts) combined. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/5 "2010-04-23T21:55:52Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Why do you want to ignore people in low-security prisons and people over the age of 50? You don’t think they have them too? There was a young former gangster in a TV show who had a perfectly tattoo-free body so far as I could tell. That seemed unrealistic to me. Low security prisons are, so far as I’m aware, mostly full of white-collar and one-off criminals not the hard core gangsters with a lengthy rapsheet so they don’t really represent the data that I’m looking for. Neither do older convicts who might have a different ratio. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/6 "2010-04-23T22:01:17Z")
Well, here’s something: [this article says that out of a group of 2,000 inmates at Illinois prisons, 66 percent had tattoos.](http://www.csu.edu/healthsciences/hivaidsinstitute/executivesummary.htm) [This article says 45 percent of Canadian inmates get a tattoo while in prison.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1780083/) It’s not like the police or the courts catalogue a convict’s tattoos before he is thrown in jail, so I don’t know if you’re going to get what you’re looking for, **Sage Rat**. But it looks like there have been some studies done to help governments reduce the transmission of hepatitis and AIDS through tattooing. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/7 "2010-04-23T22:54:21Z")
So 1/3 of Illinois inmates are tattoo free. Meanwhile i[n the general population](http://www.booksie.com/non-fiction/article/silvershadowhuntress/americans-acceptance-of-tattooing) > [@](#): > > more than one-third of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 have tattoos, and 40 percent of those between 26 and 40, according to a Pew Research study. For those over age 40, the number drops to 10 percent. Then again admittedly a convict is unlikely to have a discrete rose tattoo on his ankle of hip. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/8 "2010-04-23T23:00:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Well, here’s something: [this article says that out of a group of 2,000 inmates at Illinois prisons, 66 percent had tattoos.](http://www.csu.edu/healthsciences/hivaidsinstitute/executivesummary.htm) Well so I guess it is decently likely for an ex-convict to be tattoo-free. I thought it would be something more like 90%. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/9 "2010-04-23T23:33:16Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > There was a young former gangster in a TV show who had a perfectly tattoo-free body so far as I could tell. That seemed unrealistic to me. > > Low security prisons are, so far as I’m aware, mostly full of white-collar and one-off criminals not the hard core gangsters with a lengthy rapsheet so they don’t really represent the data that I’m looking for. Neither do older convicts who might have a different ratio. For what it’s worth, many of the charities and other organizations who help to rehabilitate criminals will pay for tattoo removal. Getting rid of the tattoos is supposed to help them integrate into society and leave behind the old life. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/10 "2010-04-23T23:38:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It’s not like the police or the courts catalogue a convict’s tattoos before he is thrown in jail, so I don’t know if you’re going to get what you’re looking for, Actually, they DO note tattoos when people go to jail - tattoos are considered permanent identifying characteristics, like height, eye color, and fingerprints. Tattoo removal still leaves a scar, so it’s not like you can every erase them completely. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/11 "2010-04-24T01:17:54Z")
All felons serving prison time in Wisconsin get examined by security at intake, and their tattoos documented, for both identification purposes and clues to gang affiliation. WAG: Over half our inmates have tattoos of some sort, from single home-made crude ones to multiple elaborate ones. That’s just my personal guess from examining thousands of these guys. But it’s nowhere near 90% with tats, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/12 "2010-04-24T03:01:52Z")
How many with eyeball tatoos? [http://www.afrojacks.com/2010-prison-trend-homemade-eyeball-tattoos/](http://www.afrojacks.com/2010-prison-trend-homemade-eyeball-tattoos/) ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/13 "2010-04-24T05:01:16Z")
And also we have to ask them about any new tattoos when the visit the clinics because there’s a chance they could have gotten one while in jail, and the risk of Hep B/C or other illnesses by dirty needles is thus always something we’d want to be on top of. So I always have to ask about tattoos, and then add the question “Where’d you get them?” Same with “Did you do any drugs?” “How about marijuana? And any needle use?” You need to get all 3 in there rather than just one general question about drugs, as each has different things to look out for. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/14 "2010-04-25T04:38:30Z")
There was a time when tattoos, particularly upon the neck or face, were considered possible markers of sociopathy. I keep wondering if that continues to hold true and more people are developing SPD now, or if it has been dropped from indicative criteria due to the present popularity of tattoos. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/15 "2010-04-25T05:30:56Z")
I don’t believe it is on the DSM IV criteria for Antisocial personality disorder (the stereotypical “sociopaths”) nor schizophrenia. I had not heard anything about facial tattoo fitting that sort of category, but that’s rather interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-prisoners-with-tattoos/537151/16 "2010-04-25T18:21:24Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > I don’t believe it is on the DSM IV criteria for Antisocial personality disorder (the stereotypical “sociopaths”) nor schizophrenia. > > I had not heard anything about facial tattoo fitting that sort of category, but that’s rather interesting. Yes, I think so also. Especially in light of gangsta culture popularity today. Nope, not in the DSM criteria. I was referencing Stanton Samenow, author of The Criminal Mind. Perhaps I should have used the words _red flag for_ rather than _indicative_ to make myself more clear.