History Main / TattooedCrook

Tattoos have a long history, and have over the millenia been signs of different social classes, from royalty to the rags. In more recent times, they have become associated with criminals, sailors and [[{{Pirates}} criminal [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs sailors]]. 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 tell their life stories in pictures.

Tattoos have a long history, and have over the millenia been signs of different social classes, from royalty to the rags. In more recent times, they have become associated with criminals, sailors and [[{{Pirates}} criminal sailors]]. 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 tell their life stories in pictures.

* Cabbage from ''[=~Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin~=]'' has a tattoo on his bicep. His criminal activities are just an act of violence while drunk, but it's possible he had the crime pinned on him because the suspicious tattoo.

* The Jinn in ''{{Supernatural}}'' look like heavily tattooed people with blue flames coming out of their hands.

* ''[[TheTransporter Transporter 2]]''. [[TheDragon Lola]] has a tattoo on her [[FetishFuel inner thigh]] labelled "[[KillerRabbit "Death by Rabbit]]" with a snarling rabbit wielding six{{guns akimbo}}.

* ''IronMan2''. Vanko, showing his previous history as a Russian criminal.

[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean You can learn a lot from Lydia!]]

* In Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero, [[spoiler: Tsuruya's father, head of the the Tsuruya branch of the [[{{Yakuza}} Yamaguchi-gumi]]]]

* In KyonBigDamnHero, [[spoiler: Tsuruya's father, head of the the Tsuruya branch of the [[{{Yakuza}} Yamaguchi-gumi]]]]

* In [[Fanfic/{{Ptitle0028gzjm}} Kyon: Big Damn Hero]], [[spoiler: Tsuruya's father, head of the the Tsuruya branch of the [[{{Yakuza}} Yamaguchi-gumi]]]]

* ''TeenWolf'': The basketball coach, who apparently has a very sordid personal life, advises Michael J. Fox to never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body.

* ''{{Film/Faster}}''. Driver has a tattoo on his arm marking those people he killed in prison over the past ten years. A BadAss Samoan takes one look at the tattoo and backs off, knowing full well the reputation of the man wearing it.

** We can't forget Giles; his tattoo is a relic of his rebellious youth, making it this and an EmbarassingTattoo.

* No specific movies come to mind, but since TimRoth has tattoos on his arms, all the criminals he plays have them as well.
** In ''LittleOdessa'' and ''Captives''. He plays a hitman and a prisoner respectively, with his tattoos frequently on display.
* Lester has an Ace of Spades tattooed down his sleeve in ''Rounders''.
* {{Barcode Tattoo}}s are marks of prisoners in ''Alien 3''.

* Operates as a ChekhovsGun for [[strike:Aragorn]] Viggo Mortensen's character in ''EasternPromises''.
** It says something that while taking a break, he accidentally scared several Russian Immigrants into thinking he was the real [=McCoy=].

* [[GangBangers Street gangs]] often skip the subtlety and just tattoo rather unambiguous gang symbols, and in a very extreme case, the Salvadoran American street gang MS-13 has the gang name and symbols tattooed on [[FacialMarkings member's faces]].
** Which, taken to its logical conclusion, makes it ridiculously easy for police officers to recognize the gang members. At that point, chances are the gang members just don't care anymore.
** Many police departments now keep tattoo databases for this exact reason. One officer remarked that tats were "better than fingerprints".
* Prison tattoos carry different meanings. The spider web can mean drug addiction (when on the inside of the arm joint), incarceration (when on the elbow) or membership of a white supremacist organization/killing a minority (neck, bicep). Teardrops can mean anything from dead family members, bragging about a kill count to being a child molester (the latter being the standard in Australia).

* Thoroughly and almost completely inverted in many tribal cultures (particularly the Maori and many African tribes), as well as (since about 2000) North America and much of western Europe; the tribal cultures maintain them as old traditions, and in the US in particular, tattoos have become so commonplace as to be almost (though not completely) sanitized.

* In ''DoctorWho'', the third Doctor (or at least his actor) had a snake tattoo on his arm, due to the actor having one. Because it first appeared on screen after he was exiled to Earth, {{Fanon}} and ExpandedUniverse says it was a prison tattoo.

This is also true with [[{{Film/Transformers}} Movie]] [[TheStarscream Starscream.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MS13.jpg

-->''"Just a young boy, born to a life of poverty\\

Tattoos all over his chest so you could know his name"''\\
--'''Dead Prez - Behind Enemy Lines'''

** Which, taken to its logical conclusion, makes it ridiculously easy for police officers to recognize the gang members.
** At that point, chances are they just don't care anymore.

* The bikers in ''HellRide''. Small plot point comes from villain Billy Wings who has different colour wings tattooed on him to mark sexual transgressions, including purple wings for "licking dead pussy".