Tattoo's vs. Gang symbols

Many years ago people only had tattoo's if it was a symbol for something. People never knew how to identify them because they didn't have the skills to do so but if you had a tattoo it meant that you had some kind of gang or criminal association. It also meant you had probably served time in prison.

Now tattoo's are very popular. There are still many people that get or have gang tattoo's. The difference is many gang related tattoo's are tribal symbols. They aren't your normal body art like flowers, butterflies, and crosses. The gang related symbol is to define a certain group they are in and to also let people know the indication of their gang or status.

It is unlikely for people to be able to identify the signs. The symbols are used for rival gangs to see and for group members to identify each other. There are still many gangs around but majority of them are in major cities or prison. A few big gangs would be Yakuza or Japanese mafia, which form little black rings around their arm and that symbolizes each crime a gang member has committed. The hispanic gang has so many different gangs that theres to many to go through but majority of them have a five pointed crown found on the upper arm or a five pointed star can be found between the finger and the thumb. Mexican gangs often go by their religious background or blood ties for their symbols. Many of them have praying hands on them which symbolizes their praying for forgiveness. Another common tattoo for the Mexican and Latin gangs is the Lady of Guadalupe. Gangster's use to have symbols to represent a gang but now so many rappers and black celebrities have gotten them tattooed on them because of where they grew up or whatever reason they had to get it so now it doesn't always identify a gang symbol.

I think that gang symbols are very over rated and not real like they use to be. I see on jail and prison shows all the time that people will get symbols tattooed on them in jail or come in with the tattoo. When someone interviews them they say they got the tattoo in prison because they had to pick a side or they come into jail with a gang symbol and it's just representing where their from but has nothing to do with actually being in a gang. Some people have no clue what gang they are truly in. People fuss abut being a blood or a crip but that hasn't been around in years except in major cities.

http://www.freetattoodesigns.org/gang-tattoos.html