I worked with a guy last year who, among many other tattoos, had spiderwebs on his elbows. I’ve heard that this is a prison tat (even though I don’t think that guy was ever in prison.) What’s the story?
Furthermore he also had a strange “mechanical” theme to his tattoos including nuts, bolts, hinges on various joints, wires and chains. He even had a skeleton with a toolbox on his head. I’d never seen anything like it. Have any of you ever seen a machine tattoo theme before?
Elbow spider webs are a tired cliche` (IMHO) in the tattoo world. There are only so many things that “fit” the elbow, and spider webs are quick and easy. Prison tats tend to be easy to recognize…kinda crude and “splotchy” in my experience. The biomechanical theme is relatively common, here are a few examples:
There were news stories several years ago identifying spiderwebs as a white supremacists’ indication that one had killed a black person. I’m willing to believe it has this meaning for some folks but not necessarily for all folks.
Some of those Biomech tattoos are kind of cool but this guy had nothing like that. I mean he literally had random tattoos of nuts, bolts, hinges, wires, chains, and wrenches all over his arms. They weren’t connected in any sort of artistic way or design, they were just loose. Some of them were just weird; the skeleton with a toolbox on his head and a wrench in his hand, for example. Another had a pair of wrenches radiating from a tire, superimposed over an Irish shamrock, superimposed over the colors of the Polish flag (he was Irish/Polish.)
Spiderwebs on elbows is a tattoo very often seen on skinheads, racist or not. So are patriotic tats such as Made in … with the country’s flag and also the crucified skin tat, specific design. Of course they sport many others but many skins consider them and others “real” if they have one of these tats.
I’ve seen a few others with the spiderweb on elbow: punks, bikers, average joes, etc. This one gained lots of popularity because it’s one of the few tattos that goes well on an elbow and looks good at different angles.
My 2 cents,
TarantulaGirl
[QUOTE=PaulFitzroy]
Some of those Biomech tattoos are kind of cool but this guy had nothing like that. I mean he literally had random tattoos of nuts, bolts, hinges, wires, chains, and wrenches all over his arms. They weren’t connected in any sort of artistic way or design, they were just loose. Some of them were just weird; the skeleton with a toolbox on his head and a wrench in his hand, for example.[/Q
Maybe he’s an auto mechanic or appliance repairman and really proud of it.
I know that this guy worked in a steel mill for a while, and that he had served in the Army’s artillery division (maybe as a mechanic.) He had also worked as a trucker. I don’t know if he was a bike mechanic, but he did own a big Honda bike.
He definitely wasn’t racist, and he had all his hair so I don’t think he was a skinhead. And I don’t think he had been in prison. I guess he just thought the spiderwebs looked cool.
Elbow spider webs mean “doing time.” Other ethnicities get them besides whites. Also regular joes get them because they look cool to them too.
Side note about skinheads:
Not all are racist or white supremacists.
Skinheads originated in the late sixties from other cliques at the time, mods & rudeboys. They just adopted a rougher look and were sometimes known for making trouble usually in the form of hooliganism and street fighting. Some individuals may have been racist (as in pretty much any population) but it wasn’t an issue to the group. Mods and skins were derivatives of rudeboys which came from Jamaican roots and all cliques helped establish the Jamaican music scene at the time in England.
Skinheads died out in the seventies and were very few in numbers. A few years later, the skinhead look reappeared in North America in white supremacist groups. They adopted the desired rough look and this is the majority of skins you see in the medias.
Since then, there has been different kinds of skinhead and there are:
I’m sure there’s more today but I’m not current with all the new cliques. Unfortunately, the majority of skins still fall under the last category and are what you see on the media.
One thing is constant in all skin cliques are the three tattoos that are symbols to them, one of which is the spiderwebs on elbows.
I’m sure that they could have meaning to other groups as I have seen them on non-skins.
My guess on your co-worker is that is might have been a skin in his youth (what age is he now). Many won’t openly admit it though as they aren’t proud of their skinhead past, especially if they were racist.
I’ve actually had a similar instance happen a year ago where I met a guy through a local association. He had several tattoos and I had noticed the spiderwebs on both elbows. After a while I finally asked, “Were you a skin?” He looked up at me surprised and asked how did I know. He didn’t admit it to others and wanted me to keep it private as he wasn’t proud of his earlier days.
TarantulaGirl
I realize this. I’ve worked with guys with swastika tattoos who weren’t racist; bikers and other anti-authority types adopted the swastika and the Luftwaffe cross during the 60’s as an iconoclastic symbol, representing power and intimidation but also just to go against what people were ‘supposed’ to look like.
This concept, I think, is fading away, the biker, punk and rebel types of 30 years from now are probably less likely to wear swastikas because of their connotation.