Everybody’s getting inked these days. Some believe in their tattoos while others are obliging to peer pressure and trend. A lot of tattoos we see around on regular men and women hold intense meanings inside the shady walls of prison.
When prison inmates get themselves inked, it means their beliefs in the life of crime are so deep rooted that it’s frightening. There’s nothing fashionable about tattoos within the walls of a prison. Let’s find out what they mean.
1.Barbed wire
Barbed wire on the forehead means the prisoner has no possibility of parole. On the forearms, barbed wire signifies the years served by the prisoners.
 2.  Dagger
If a prisoner has a dagger tattooed in his body anywhere other than the neck, it means he had been a sex offender.
3. Lenin, Marx or Friedrich Engels
A tradition among Soviet prisoners to tattoo Lenin, Marx and Engels on their bodies so that the authorizes cannot shoot at the figures of the founding fathers of the USSR.
4. Mermaid
A mermaid tattoo on a prisoner signifies that he had been accused of molesting a child.
5. Cats
Often means the prisoner had a career as a thief. A single cat may signify the prisoner worked alone while several cats may mean he was a part of a gang.
6. Skull
Skull tattoos signify that the prisoner had been convicted of murder  of a significant person.
7. Spiderweb
Spiders web signify a life dedicated to crime but if there’s a spider trying to climb out of the web, it means the prisoner is trying reform himself.
8. Tombstone
Tombstones repentant the loss of time inside the prison. If the stone reads 2010-2015, it means the prisoners had served five yeas of sentence.
9. Birds
Tattoos of birds flying represent the prisoners longing to be freed – that he believes he was born to be free.
10. Goats
Tattoos of goats signify the prisoner had been an informer and such tattoos are usually inked forcibly on the bearer.
11. Swastika
Soviet prisoners would have the Nazi symbol as a tattoo which signified they’d rather embrace Nazism than obey the Communists.
12. Dagger in the neck
Tattoo of a dagger in the neck signifies that the prisoner had committed murder before and is available to be hired for killing other inmates.
13. Rose
A convict with a white-dried rose tattoo symbolizes that he prefers death over the loss of virtue. If the tattoo has thorns, it means the convict has come of age in prison.