Tattoo Patterns 4 You

The designer label has taken on almost mythical qualities for some. Expensive clothing flies off the racks in stores all over the Western world, even if some of it doesn’t look that great. Why? Because of the label. Several companies have built up a reputation and a corporate awareness without a majority of people even having used the product, and the reason for this is corporate branding.

Almost a decade ago Naomi Klein wrote the seminal anti-globalisation text No Logo, and almost instantly people were finding a way to wear the title of the book, printed as it was on the cover, somewhere on their clothes. Branding is everywhere. Even anti-corporate movements are seeing their insignia hijacked and worn as a fashion symbol. Whether or not the irony occurs to the people wearing it, this is not an uncommon occurrence.

Nowhere is this obsession with branding more prominent than in the growing craze of Corporate Logo Tattoos. Also referred to as Literal Corporate Branding, this pursuit is becoming almost terrifyingly popular. For some, it’s a very real case of them not being able to afford the actual product, but wanting the logo so badly that they’ll get it tattooed onto their skin.

If you name a major global corporation, the chances are you could do a Google search and see a picture of someone who has branded their body with that corporation’s logo. And yes, that includes Google. Some people are doing it for advertising bucks, but some are doing it just because they like the logo. It may seem mystifying but it’s growing in popularity. It does make you wonder, though, what would happen if the companies concerned sue for breach of copyright.

To the unaware, tears of tattoos may just seem to be a sad, symbolic tattoo used to perhaps demonstrate the state of mind of the tattooed person. Yet while the symbol of a tear, usually tattooed directly beneath the eye, may seem innocent, it’s roots and meanings are far more dark.

It has become custom for a tear tattoo to symbolise a person. On the more acceptable side of the design, a tear tattoo is used to symbolize a fallen brother. This is sometimes a literal brother, or a close friend or colleague who lost their life due to an unnatural death. In these instances, the tear tattoo is nothing more than an outward sign of mourning and remembrance, meant only for these purposes.

Yet the real history of tear tattoos is far less emotionally sensitive, though no less symbolic. Tear tattoos are very popular for prison inmates. In these cases, they tend to be used as a sign of the amount of murders the tattooed person has committed. No one seems quite sure if they are used as a status symbol or as an act of penance or apology, and no doubt the real reason behind the tear tattoo depends from person to person.

In both cases, the appearance of the tattoo does not end in the shape. Further details as for the reason for the tear tattoo can be gleaned from it’s total design. In general, just the outline of a tear – an empty tear – tends to be a sign of a fallen brother who was killed, though it can mean that the bearer has unsuccessfully attempted murder. A full tear tattoo, one which is coloured inside the lines, is often used to represent a friend who has taken their own life. In prison and criminal circuits, a full tear is the declaration of a successful murder. Finally, a tear that is empty at the top but full at the bottom, means in most cases that the bearer has avenged the murder of a loved one.

The use of the tear tattoo is, for these reasons, something to be avoided by the general populace. It is seen as a highly symbolic type of tattoo and even if you were to want one just to symbolize mourning and the death of a loved one, it is too easy to get the different reasons confused and you could give someone a particularly bad impression. It is a real shame that what is actually a symbol of remembrance can mean something else entirely. For most, avoid the tear tattoo, but there is nothing wrong with admiring the simple beauty it can sometimes evoke.

If you are Irish, or have an Irish heritage you’re proud of, it may seem like a good idea to get a shamrock tattooed somewhere on your person. You may see it as a permanent declaration of your Celtic lineage, a proud symbol of one of Ireland’s most recognisable national symbols. But be warned; tattoos are often associated with criminal activities and gangs, and a tattoo design may have connotations that you aren’t aware of. In the case of the humble shamrock, this can be seen as a sign of belonging to the Aryan Brotherhood – one of the most prolific white supremacist gangs in operation today.

This is by no means an alien case, though perhaps it is an example of how an innocent symbol can mean something much darker. So when it comes to choosing a tattoo design, there’s a few things you need to watch out for – or you could end up declaring an affiliation you didn’t know existed.

Numbers are often used in criminal tattooing. Again with the Aryan Brotherhood, beware any design incorporating the number 12. This is used as symbolic, with “1” representing “A” and “2” representing “B” - AB, the initials of the name of the gang. This theme is continued with another white supremacist group, the Aryan Circle, used 13 for the same reasons. This too can be damaging, as many will use the supposedly unlucky number for poking fun at superstition, not realising the other associations.

Continuing on the numbers – and the white supremacist – theme, anything with two eights (88) incorporated into the design should be avoided. Again, using numbers to represent letters, 88 is used by Nazis – the 88 representing HH, or Heil Hitler.

Numbers and shamrocks are not the only seemingly innocent designs which have less than savoury associations. Many people like the idea of having one of the suits of a deck of cards, but these too are criminal symbols. Spades are seen as the suit of thieves, clubs are “criminal” and mostly used to symbolize ex-warriors. Diamonds is seen as the “chummy suit”, used for informers, and is most often applied without consent from the bearer. Worst of all is hearts – seen so frequently in tattoo design – which can mean “passive homosexual”, while at worst meaning the bearer is basically the prison sex toy.

Before tattooing anything permanently on to your skin, check the internet and make doubly sure there are no other meanings for whatever you’re about to choose.