POST 10 : TATTOOS & GANGS

Why do you think more and more people wear tattoos (regardless of whether they belong to gangs or not)?

People have been getting tattooed for thousands of years. In fact, historians have found ancient Egypt tattooed mummies. Nevertheless in western world the ones that got tattoed were pirates, convicted people and even soldiers (with the tipical tattoo 'Mother's love'). This was a symbol of social membership of this groups. Moreover, nazis used tattooes to class prisonners in the concentration camps.

Nowadays things have gone further. Pop art and pop music has made tattooes a symbol of distinction or a way of complaint. Singers, football players and celebrities were the first of being tattoed. Mass society and more precisely fans want to look like their leaders.

There are different reasons for which people get tattoed. One could be the importance of appearance, to make a difference or to become fashionable. And if we go deeper there are some people who think that the body is like a temple where your creativity and your personnality can be depicted. To sum up getting tatooed has turned nowadays in something trivial.

The football player David Beckham showing his tatoos

The singer Amy Winehouse a symbol for pop music showing his tattoos

Why do young people join gangs? 

All the gangs are not the same. Their rituals, people they target change from gang to gang. Whereas the reasons of joining gangs are often the same. To joing a gang or a group means that you are not social isolated because to be part of that group means in some way to exist so you are accepted and you become 'cool' sometimes related to peer pressure. Usually, people who joing gangs have lived in a difficult environment with domestic violence in their homes so they have a desire of being protected. This idea is related to a need of food or money and maybe a lack of parent supervision.

Latino gang member proud of his tattoos. That is to say that usually
gang bangers wear tatoos

Advertisement about Gang Life

Advertisement about gang life

What link can you see between both topics and the notion of power?

First of all we have seen that being tattoed has turned trivial in western society, because more and more people get tattoed. Whereas, it continues to be a symbol of a social membership and also it is something that makes you different from the rest. On the second part we have seen that young people joing gangs because of their difficulties on their homes, it is a desire of being protected but also it can be related to the idea of becoming cool.
All in all, on both topics we see an illustration of the notion of power very close. First of all we have the idea of identity, of being accepted on both cases. Getting tattoed means to record your identity through different forms of self-expression and within gaing a distinction of the mass society but being accepted in some cultural environments. Similarly, in the case of joining a gang there is always this idea of being part of a group, being accepted.
Moreover, the notion of progress can also be seen in this topics as the idea of being superior to the rest, being different or have more social influence in people because of tattoes or gangs.

Video tattoo covered makeup: 

The man with more tattoos in the world 

The Draw of 'Dead Town'

 1. Gabriel Hinojos is a young man who got out of a street gang 'F13' that stands for 'Florencia 13' in Los Angeles. He is the typical example of a young trying to leave a gang. He went to a tattoo removal center called Ya stuvo the spanish translation for 'that's enough, I'm done with that' (l.2) to get his gang tattoo removed from just bellow the eye. It was the only way for him to stop being part of the gang.

2. As we see in the text Ya Stuvo means '' that's enough, I'm done with that'' (l.2). It is a tattoo removal center in Los Angeles. From time to time surgeons would kindly offer their skills to erase gang members' tattoos with laser. Gabriel Hinojos has gone there 45 times and as the journalist says his reaction was ''He grimaced in pain as the surgeon extracted the ink from the soft skin under his eye'' (l.8).

3. In the context of the article 'Black teardrops' is this symbolic tattoo below the eye that some gang members often have to show that they have been in prison or have killed someone. The more teardrops you have, the more respect you would earn from the gang members. The teardrops could also mean that the gang members don't cry because they are tough men.

4. This short sentence means that Gabriel Hinojos is feeling repented about what he did by joining this gang. It also means that he has a lot of tattoo teardrops because he has been convincted to prison so many times. Gabriel was obviously the meanest of the Florencia 13 gang.

5. The article shows that getting out of a gang is very difficult. Gabriel Hinojos compares this situation to getting a tattoo removed: " slow, painful, scarring" (l.18).

6. Getting out of a gang it is not always possible, as we see in line 18 "In street lore, a gang banger can never leave a really brutal gang like Mara Salvatrucha 13."

7. Nevertheless, getting out of the F13 gang is not easy but it is possible if you have killed the right amount of people and if you have managed to earn drug money for the gang. The article illustrates this fact on line 22: "In practice a gang member like Gabriel can get out of a tough (...) if he has served time in prinson and 'done the work'- shown that he can sling drugs and wield a gun" 

8. On lines 22- 23 Gabriel explains  that escaping of a gang life is extremely difficult. The fact is that when you enter in a gang you leave it the most part of the time when you die or you leave it if you have done the right things like been in prison or sling drugs. It is quite clear that if you stay in a gang for years, knowing all the secrets, you can't leave it easy. Moreover, after having this kind of life, you going to have some problems to adapt yourself to society normal life.

9. At the end of the article we see that Gabriel represents a symbol for all these youngsters that lived the difficulties of a gang life and that cannot leave it because they are afraid. However by reading the last three lines we understood that months later after celebrating his archivement being on the White House with Laura Bush, Gabriel was back in jail. This passage illustrate the idea that leaving a gang is extremely difficult and not always possible.

10. The picture represents the moment when Gabriel Hinojos went to the tattoo removal center Ya Stuvo for extracted the ink from his skin with laser. He is wearing sun glasses but his face expression shows that the surgery is, as he said "slow, painful and scarring" (l.18). This potograph is very significative with the meaning of the article because the expression of Gabriel Hinojos shows to us that he is tough and brave

POST 9: The Draw of 'Dead Town' - A Newsweek article (February 16, 2009) + GANGLAND Video

Go there for a full version of the Newsweek article given out in class.