If you see someone with a three-point tattoo, run as far as you can
Tear
This tattoo is one of the best known in the world of prisons and can have different meanings. Most often, if you see a prisoner with a tear tattooed under the eye, it means that he is serving a long sentence or has already committed murder. In this context, the tear symbolizes sadness and grief for the mother of the murdered.
The tattoo can also mean that the person has attempted murder or that a friend of the prisoner has been murdered and he wants revenge on him.
Essentially, an ink-filled tear means that the prisoner already has at least one crime behind him, and with each subsequent murder, a new tear is added.
If
the tear is not filled, it may indicate that the “work” is not yet finished – the prisoner expresses a desire for revenge after the death of a loved one, friend or even cellmate. This shows that he does not feel vindictive and that only when he fulfills this goal will he be able to “fill his tear” and sleep peacefully… in his cell.
Many rappers and celebrities have popularized this prison tattoo to look like tough types and rebels.
Inscription ACAB
This is a British tattoo meaning “All Cops Are Bastards” (“All cops are bastards”).
Clock without hands
A clock without hands symbolizes the time spent in prison. It is suitable for prisoners with life or extremely long sentences. It’s a way of showing that time is frozen and dragging on relentlessly. For prisoners wearing such a tattoo, time has lost value and no longer matters.
This image is usually found on the bodies of life sentences who do not want to count the days behind bars. The clock without hands symbolizes a meaningless and wasted life for those who await execution.
Moreover, a watch tattoo can have different shapes: a pocket watch, a wall clock, or even a watch without a strap.
History and Meaning of Tattoos
Since ancient times, tattoos have been a form of graphic expression, similar to tribal tattoos, which denote belonging to a clan. But they are also body decoration, preferred by millions of people from different regions, cultures and social strata.
In addition to their aesthetic values, tattoos reveal many other aspects, penetrating any environment. They appear on the street and infiltrate prisons; they adorn stars from rap music and sports; They become a means of discrimination or distinction, but they always carry with them the smell of sulfur, rebellion and nonconformism.
And if today tattooing is something ordinary, then in the beginning it was the practice of minorities, the marginalized and even fans of metal or punk. But in the prison environment, tattoos take on a completely different meaning.
What do these tattoos mean?
Indeed, among prisoners, some tattoos have a strictly defined meaning. They may express belonging to a particular group or simply denote a personal identity, but they can also represent a kind of “summary” of the prisoner – for those who know how to read them. They reveal information such as the number of years in prison or his criminal past, and therefore serve as true identifiers.
As Jérôme Pierre, author of the prison tattoo book Bad Boys, co-written with Eric Guyon, noted in an interview with Mediapart:
“At first glance, these tattoos may look like ordinary decorative signs. But in the eyes of the initiated, they are a real identity card.”
In this article, we try to present a list of tattoos analyzed by experts on criminal groups and penitentiary officials. We will show that these tattoos do not only serve aesthetics, but convey a concrete and sometimes terrifying message.
Here are 14 prisoner tattoo designs that have scary meaning and will make you think twice before getting a tattoo. This is a decision that should never be taken lightly.
My Husband Died After 62 Years of Marriage — At His Funeral, a Girl Handed Me an Envelope That Changed Everything
I barely made it through the funeral.
Harold and I had been married for sixty-two years. We met when I was eighteen and he was a little older than me. We married a year later and built an entire life together—two sons, three grandchildren, and a quiet, steady love that lasted longer than most people could imagine.
Losing him felt unreal.
Standing in that church without Harold beside me felt like trying to breathe with only half my lungs.
My sons stood close to me during the service, each holding one of my arms as if they knew I might collapse if they let go.
When the ceremony ended, people began quietly filing out of the church. I stayed seated for a moment, staring at the empty pews.
That’s when I saw her.
A young girl—maybe twelve or thirteen—walking quickly down the aisle toward me. I didn’t recognize her face, and she clearly wasn’t part of our family.
She stopped right in front of me.
“Are you Harold’s wife?” she asked.
Her voice was small but steady.
“Yes,” I said softly.
Without saying anything else, she held out a plain white envelope.
“Your husband asked me to give this to you,” she said. “He told me I had to wait until this exact day… at his funeral.”
My heart started pounding.
Before I could ask her a single question—her name, how she knew Harold, why he had trusted a child with something like this—she turned and ran out of the church so quickly it felt like she had disappeared.
My son touched my shoulder.
“Mom? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said automatically. “I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t.
I slipped the envelope into my purse and didn’t say anything about it to anyone.
That evening, after everyone had gone home and the house had fallen into the strange silence that follows a funeral, I sat alone at the kitchen table.
The envelope lay in front of me.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Inside was a folded letter in Harold’s handwriting.
And a small brass key that clinked softly against the table.
I unfolded the letter.
“My love,” it began.
“I should have told you this years ago, but I couldn’t. Sixty-five years ago, I thought I had buried this secret forever, but it followed me my whole life. You deserve the truth. This key opens Garage 122 at the address below. Go when you’re ready. Everything is there.”
I read the letter twice.
Then a third time.
I wasn’t ready.
But somehow I knew I had to go.
I put on my coat, called a taxi, and gave the driver the address written in Harold’s letter.
The garage was on the outskirts of the city.
A long row of identical metal doors stretched across an empty lot that looked like it hadn’t changed since the 1970s.
Garage 122 sat near the end.
My hands were shaking as I slid the key into the old padlock.
The door creaked loudly when I lifted it.
The smell hit me first.
Dust. Old wood. Paper.
In the center of the concrete floor stood an enormous wooden crate, almost as tall as I was. Thick cobwebs covered its corners, and a heavy layer of dust told me it had been sitting there for decades.
I wiped the latch with my sleeve.
Then I opened it.
Inside were dozens of letters.
Children’s drawings tied together with faded ribbons.
Birthday cards addressed to Harold.
School certificates.
Old photographs.
Every letter ended the same way.
Virginia.
At the very bottom of the crate sat a worn folder.
Inside were documents dated more than sixty years back.
Slowly, the truth began to form.
Harold had been financially supporting a young woman and her baby after the child’s father abandoned them. Rent receipts. School payments. Medical bills. Quiet monthly support that had lasted for years.
He had saved every letter she ever wrote him.
Every single one.
I sat down on the cold concrete floor.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
“Harold… what have you done?”
At that moment, I heard tires crunch outside the garage.
A bicycle skidded to a stop.
When I looked up, the same girl from the funeral stood in the doorway, slightly out of breath.
“I thought you might come here,” she said.
“You followed me?”
She nodded. “I rode behind the taxi.”
My head spun.
“Who are you?” I asked. “How did you know my husband?”
“My name is Gini,” she said. “My mom’s name is Virginia.”
My heart skipped.
“Virginia?” I repeated.
She nodded.
“Harold used to visit us sometimes,” she said. “He helped my mom a lot.”
Then she hesitated.
“My mom is in the hospital right now,” she added quietly.
We went to see her that same night.
Virginia lay in a hospital bed, pale and weak, tubes running from her arm.
“She needs heart surgery,” Gini explained. “But we can’t afford it.”
When I spoke to the doctor in the hallway, he confirmed it.
Without the surgery, Virginia wouldn’t survive long.
Standing there, I suddenly understood why Harold had left me the key.
He had trusted me to finish what he started.
Two days later, I returned to the hospital with the money.
The surgery lasted six hours.
It was successful.
A week later, Virginia invited me to visit her home.
She showed me an old photo album.
Page after page told the story of a girl growing up.
Then I turned one more page.
And my heart stopped.
In the photograph stood a young Harold.
Beside him was a teenage girl holding a newborn baby.
I knew that girl instantly.
It was my sister Iris.
The sister who had disappeared when I was fifteen.
The sister my parents never spoke about again.
“That’s my mother,” Virginia said softly.
Tears filled my eyes.
Harold hadn’t been hiding another family.
He had been protecting mine.
That night, I went home and opened Harold’s old diary.
Entry after entry told the story.
Years ago, he had found my sister alone with a newborn baby after the man who promised to marry her abandoned her.
He helped her quietly.
Food. Rent. Work.
Later, he realized who she really was—my sister.
But by then, he had already fallen in love with me.
He knew telling the truth would reopen wounds my parents had spent years trying to heal.
So he kept helping from the shadows.
For sixty-five years.
The next day, I returned to Virginia and Gini.
We sat at their kitchen table while I told them everything.
Virginia covered her mouth with trembling hands.
Gini stared at me in shock.
Finally, I looked at the little girl.
“You’re my great-niece,” I said gently.
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then Gini walked across the room and wrapped her arms around me.
And I held her tightly.
Thinking about the man who had carried this secret alone for a lifetime.
Harold hadn’t hidden a betrayal.
He had hidden a kindness.
And in the end, that secret didn’t break our family.
It brought it home.
