History Main / TattooedCrook

** PsychopartyMember Bats has plenty, including a gun on the back of his hand and several Bats on his neck.

** PsychoTeamMate Bats has plenty, including a gun on the back of his hand and several Bats on his neck.

* On the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Under the Gun", the murder victim was an ex-con who had stashed the jewels he stole in a Manhattan graveyard. After they failed to find anything, Castle glanced at the victim's photo and realized that the roman numeral tattoos on his arm were the key to finding the stolen loot.

** {{Defied|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/Yakuza6'' with Takumi Someya who lacks the Irezumi, having a disdain against them entirely to show how far from the GoodOldWays the Yakuza has fallen, much to Kiryu's shock.

** Speaking of which, after Fisher Tiger freed a whole lot of slaves belonging to the Celestial Dragons (the Boa sisters included), he took most of the Fishmen slaves, and re-branded their slave tattoos into what resembled sun tattoos, effectively making it the symbol of the Sun Pirates, which he and Jinbe captained, until Tiger died and Jinbe became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Arlong and much of his crew all sport these tattoos because they were once members of the Sun Pirates themselves before parting ways with Jinbe after Tiger's death.

* Pretty much every Triad-affiliated character in ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs''.

* ''Film/ShotCaller'': Jacob acquires a large number of white supremacy tattoos during his prison sentence displaying his gang affiliations. Obviously, the same holds true for the other higher-ranked members.
** Interestingly, when he's formally inducted into the Aryan Brotherhood, the leader tells him not to get any AB symbols tattooed on him so the guards can't "validate" him, i.e. conclusively identify him as a member.

* Cole from ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' has two barcodes tattooed on his neck that reveal that he was convicted for violent crimes.

** [[SpaceRomans Turian]] society inverts this -- most turians you meet wear facepaint to identify what colony they're from. "Barefaced" turians are considered untrustworthy and, true to form, the only barefaced guys you meet are the main villain of the first game and a PrisonShip-running slave trader trying to pass himself off as a hero.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': Villalobos, a major Latino LA gangster, has a gang tattoo on the side of his head.

The attitudes towards tattoos have during the past decades have softened. In an old movie, a character with a tattoo was either a sailor or a thug. In the 2020s, regular middle-class people get tattoos. Indeed, old pirate and prisoner tattoo designs have been adopted into the general lexicon of regular tattoos, prime example being the spider web, which depending on the bearer might have once meant drug addiction, incarceration, or killing a minority, but is now a fashion accessory.

The attitudes towards tattoos have during the past decades have softened. In an old movie, a character with a tattoo was either a sailor or a thug. In the 2020s, regular middle-class people get tattoos. Indeed, old pirate and prisoner tattoo designs have been adopted into the general lexicon of regular tattoos, prime example being the spider web, which depending on the bearer might have oncd meant drug addiction, incarceration, or killing a minority, but is now a fashion accessory.

* ''Animation/BreadBarbershop'': The eponymous pie in "Bully Pie", a wanted crook, has a tattoo of an arrow going through an apple on his right arm.

* ''Series/RipperStreet'': In "In My Protection", TheFagin Carmichael is covered with a multitude of tattoos, each one of which represents a specific crime he has committed. His gang of kids have similar tattoos.

* ''Film/{{Shuttle}}'': When [[spoiler:Andy]] is revealed to be TheMole, it's punctuated by him ripping his shirt open to show off his tattoos.

* Nami, from a pirate adventure series ''Manga/OnePiece'', first had the Arlong pirate's crest on her shoulder, but after breaking ties with them, changed it into a homage to her adoptive mother Bellemere and surrogate father figure Genzo. (Her adoptive older sister Nojiko, despite not being a crook, also got a tattoo to show her sympathy for her.) Also, Luffy's brother Ace has ASCE (with an X through the S) on his bicep and the Whitebeard Pirate's crest on his back, which in the manga contained a Manji, but was changed [[NoSwastikas into a cross in the Anime]] and retconned into the manga.
** ''One Piece'' seems to like this trope. Boa Hancock and her sisters Marigold and Sandersonia were revealed to have a scar tattoo on their backs [[spoiler: called the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon", the crest of [[AristocratsAreEvil Celestial Dragons]]. It is a mark that is burned into people who are slaves to the nobles and signifies that they are "less than human", which explains why they invented the story of the Gorgon so nobody would look at their backs]].
** Speaking of that, [[spoiler: after Fisher Tiger freed a whole lot of slaves of the Celestial Dragons' (the Boa sisters included), he took most of the Fishmen slaves, and re-branded their tattoos into what resembled sun tattoos, effectively making it the symbol of the Pirates of the Sun, which he and Jimbei captained, until Tiger died and Jimbei became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.]]
*** [[spoiler: Arlong and much of his crew all sport these tattoos because they were once members of the Pirates of the Sun.]]
** [[spoiler:Subverted with the New Fishman Pirates. While they sport a tattoo that looks like the Sun Pirates' tattoo at first glance, it has a decapitated human inside the sun ring instead of a dot. Since this would not cover up the Celestial Dragons' SlaveBrand, this eventually leads to TheReveal that no member of the New Fishman Pirates has ever been a slave.]]

* ''Polar Star''. Former Moscow detective Arkady Renko encounters a crook he sent to TheGulag for murder who has the scars from when the prison doctors removed his tats. Arkardy points to an evident injury on the man's forehead and asks what he had up there. It was "Communism drinks the blood of the people". Arkardy is impressed that he could fit all that on his forehead.
** In ''Red Square'', the sequel to ''Polar Star'' (which is the sequel to ''Literature/GorkyPark''), one of Renko's partners looks at a witness's tattoos and sounds off that each picture has a meaning, e.g. he's been to prison and is willing to murder and so on.

** {{Defied|Trope}] in ''VideoGame/Yakuza6'' with Takumi Someya who lacks the Irezumi, having a disdain against them entirely to show how far from the GoodOldWays the Yakuza has fallen, much to Kiryu's shock.

** Averted and {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/Yakuza6'' with Takumi Someya who lacks the Irezumi, having a disdain against them entirely to show how far from the GoodOldWays the Yakuza has fallen, much to Kiryu's shock.

Tattoos have a long history and have over the millennia been signs of different social classes, from royalty to the rags. In more recent times, they have become associated with criminals, sailors, and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs criminal]] [[{{Pirates}} sailors]] (aka pirates). In fiction, a tattoo can act as a shorthand for "criminal", and at times [[TruthInTelevision it's not that far off]]. Organised crime from The {{Yakuza}} to GangBangers have their own codes, and prisoners [[StoryboardBody tell their life stories in pictures]].

Still, the stigma with the past backgrounds makes tattoos popular with rebel types. Even the RuleAbidingRebel -- or [[EspeciallyZoidberg especially]] the RuleAbidingRebel, since it does not actually require committing illegal acts to look rebellious. There is still extreme stigma related to tattoos in Japan, as they are still closely associated with the Yakuza to this day. A tattoo is still a common visual cue in Japanese media for a character of dubious morals or simply a {{Delinquent}}.