Um, mind being a little more specific? Reason I ask is, being a nurse, my idea of just below the stomach would seem to be right in the danger zone. Are you talking about down to the panty line, off to the side? Or not, if that’s more than you want to share.
I understand (from prestigious TV sources) it means the wearer has done time; in Spain, a large amount of the female prison population is there for drug-related crimes (often for being mules; consumption is decriminalized). I’ve seen three different star designs; the crosses I’ve seen were also a quite specific design.
I have a couple of questions of meaning of tattoos, if any.
I’ve heard that a tear under the eye means your buddy was killed in prison.
Does the spider web around the elbow mean anything?
I’ve also seen a lot of sparrows? on peoples neck. Does that mean anything?
The tats in question can be seen in this picture.
http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/7/4/5/f_MikeNessm_5c29e6e.jpg
I asked my tattoo artist once if he ever turned anyone away. He said he did almost every day. The reason? People with no money wanting to get ink and make payments.
Most I know will not do a tear tattoo.
Well, in the case of that picture they mean “I’m Mike Ness, one of the godfathers of the American punk scene.” Seriously, though, a tear on your face is one of the few tattoos that I don’t know people to get just for the sake of what looks good. Spiderwebs, sparrows, anchors - they may have all had meanings at one time, but now they’re just fashion.
That’s kind of what I was thinking that maybe at one time they had a meaning but others just thought it was cool and it became a fad. Also I mostly see these tats on punkers so there probably is a, “Hey that punk has some cool tats and I’m punk so I’ll get those too.”
What about this tattoo? I always wondered if this was a Photoshop job or if someone really went into a shop describing wanting this kind of a tat, and the artist not only agreeing to do so but managing to execute it without laughing so hard that the needle went awry.
Traditionally meant that you’d killed someone in prison and if it was filled in, more than one person.
It can also mean that you’ve lost someone in prison or outside.
Traditionally signified the number of years you’d spent in prison, each loop representing one year.
I think the Aryan Brotherhood used it to show that you’d killed racially, but I’m not positive.
This can mean a number of different things too, but today is pretty much just a trendy one.
Google image search for bellybutton tattoos. Bart Simpson’s butthole, a cow’s butthole, a monkey’s butthole, a woman’s hooha - not exactly unknown. Now personally, I wouldn’t get a joke tattoo, but whatever floats your boat.
I have heard that this means “caught up in the system”.
Not shilling, but check out http://www.wtftattoos.com/ for considerable evidence that many tatooists don’t say No.
Jesus! Mind you, one of the best Thai tattoo artists I’ve ever seen did his best work when plastered - but never get anything in the morning as his hand would be shaking too much.
Google warned me off that site but I persisted thanks to decent malware protection… and… OMFG. That is hilarious and tragic at the same time - like a poodle with only three legs. What were they thinking!?!
Also, Ugliest Tatoos.
There’s a lot of nasty stuff in there, so NSFW.
A friend’s one and only tattoo can be read as braille. It was completely unintentional, but rather neat. Though for the reasons stated it is pretty much the only tattoo that person will ahve.
Some people take advantage of this to get highly detailed decorative scarring. Google “tattoo gun scarification.”
Well, if they can incorporate scarring into the finished aesthetic more power to them I guess. Not my cup of tea but it’s their body.
Yeah, the spider web is a prison tat for the white power guys, but that’s an older one and not done as much anymore. The “flies” in the web were for people killed. Every time I see someone who I know hasn’t been in prison wearing certain tattoos for fashion reasons I say a little prayer that they never make a mistake big enough to end up inside, because some tattoos have to be earned or they’ll be…repossesed.
Every single time I’ve been in the chair I’ve seen someone come in who gets turned away, usually for really good reasons. I’d say some artists do more “No’s” than they do actual tattoos. I’m always surprised at the numbers of 16 year old girls who think that artists will just hit them with a tramp stamp no questions asked.
Another reason that artists don’t want to do hands is because that’s one of the areas on your body that you slough the most skin off of and work done on the hands and fingers doesn’t look good for very long, and that goes back to the artists reputation and not wanting to be associated with bad work. A good tat can bring in endless business and a bad one can slow things to a crawl since most artists work on word of mouth.
This guy’s mother must be so proud:
http://animalnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/rouslan-toumaniantz-tattoo.jpg
How does he eat?