TATOOS AND GANGS

deviantart.com by Umert

www.endganglife.ca

www.endganglife.ca

I think more and more people wear tattoos to remember where they came from, what they lived, what were thier choises, to have a reminder of persons or moments. Because wear a tattoo is telling a story of a life time or just a crazy moment. Because some people want to remember something, somebody, or anything, for ever. It's true that in today's society, tattoos have become a new fashion. But it's true that if you want something that you are happy enough to be permanently commited or tied for the rest of your life, then go ahead and get it. People don't just want to have a tattoo like a physical representation of something that left a scar on their heart but also for aesthetic reasons. We like to change, to take decissions, to build our personallity. And fashions, are also part of our life. And if somebody decides to have a tattoo done and then they stop liking it, this tattoo remains a reminder that you have changed and that you have to be proud of you.

It's not that unusual for young people to join a gang. Often the more excluded in society for any reason like being south american or afro-aferican, or they have family problems,etc. They want to feel they belong to something, they want to feel that they have a family or rather a surrogate family. They look for love or appreciation but usually that is not the result. One other reason why young people join a gang is the extreme facility to earn money by selling drugs or guns because of their high prices and the quantity of people that consumes or buy guns. Be in a gang it's be feared, stop following rules that are not your gang ones, have a social status and the most important, have easy money each day. 

In the gang society tattoos have a lot of meanings. Usually a gang member has a black teardrop tattoed just bellow the eye to represent the number of persons killed or how times you've being in jail. Ganster usually get plenty of tattoos, usually with the name of the gang or portraits of their family members because it's usually difficult keep the contact with your family and gang members really appreciate family ties. The more tattoos you have means the more money you have and for example with the teardrop tattoo, the more respect you have. In gangs when a person have no moral guilt or conscience it's when he starts being more respected and the tattoos can be a sign of the respect that the other gang members should have to you and often an identification mark.

The draw of 'Dead Town'

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

1-Gabriel Hinojos is a young man who is trying to leave the Florencia 13, "one of the largest gangs in Los Angeles". Gabriel Hinojos has been several times in jail, more precisely in the Folsom State prison were he got his teardrop tattooed just below the eye. He is very well known for leaving behind the gang life as "a kind of poster child" says Suzanne Smalley in her article.

2- "Ya Stuvo" is a "Tattoo removal center". In Spanish slang "Ya Stuvo" means "that's enough, I'm done with that". This is not the exact meaning of "Ya Stuvo" because the more exact translation is "it was already" but it is however a good translation because it is a tattoo removal center and what it is expected when you go there is to delete something of your skin you don't want to be there anymore, that's why it is called "Ya Stuvo" and why Suzanne Smalley and Evan Thomas translated it as "that's enough, I'm done with that".

3- Black teardrop is the tattoo done by some gang members when they have been in jail or when they have kill someone. This black teardrop is the center of the article because Gabriel Hinojos is trying to remove his black teardrop (done in the Folsom State Prison), a way to erase his past. There is in the whole article the comparison of "Getting out of a street gang in L.A. is about like getting a tattoo removed: slow, painful, scarring."

4- This sentence shows that Gabriel Hinojos keeps trying to remove his tattoos but also to amend his past. If it is the 45th session, we can think that he is completely cover of tatoos of the gang Florencia 13 and that he wants to completely rectify his life, present and future with no trace of his dark past.

5-"Getting out of a street gang in L.A. is about like getting a tattoo removed: slow, painful, scarring." l.16-17

6- "In street lore, a gang banger can never leave a really brutal gang (...) In practice a gang member can get out of a tough (...) if he has served time in prison and "done the work" But escaping it's extremely difficult." l.18 to 22.

7. In definitive, leaving a gang in very difficult, but it can be done, in theory. What the gang wants, in this case the Florida 13 is to have the work done. What means that even after being in jail you must finish your drug dealing or whatever mission the boss of the gang wants you to do. So you must hace served time in prison and finish your assignment because escaping is extremely difficult.

8. Escaping the pull of gang life is extremely difficult. Being a gang member it's being part of a collectivity. If you stay in the same city, your mates will always perform a pressure on the ex-member, because it is a style of life and these guys are used to adrenaline, to wield a gun, to be respected and dreaded and a person can't leave easily this way of living.

9. Gabriel started to be kind of famous because of his reputation as an ex-ganster. He is celebrating his achievement with luxury and elegance in the White House where he is with Laura Bush, the first lady celebrating this change with white wine. But has we have explain, leave a gang it's almost impossible and three days later Gabriel Hinojos returns to jail because of his mates or his works as ganster, we suppose.

10. In this photograph we can see Gabriel Hinojos in the tattoo removal center "Ya Stuvo" removing a tattoo of his neck. He is wearing protective glasses to prevent the laser hurting his eyes. We can see that it is a painful process because of his facial expression . His skin still covered in ink and the doctor is trying to remove all of it. This image illustrate very well the article because as I have explain in the third question, the fact that he is removing a tattoo is the center of the article. Suzanne Smalley and Evan Thomas compar leaving a gang with removing a tattoo (slow, painful and scarring) and that is why the article starts with this anecdote and why this photo was choose as cover.