Our hearts were warmed a few years ago when a Quebec couple got insulin pumps tattooed on their stomachs in support of their young son with type 1 diabetes who was feeling alone in his use of an insulin pump. Opting to get tattooed and selecting a design are deeply personal choices and can vary in meaning.
It was all I could offer her.But hey, times have changed and in this 21st century, getting inked is a point of pride for many people with diabetes (PWDs). “This was the best thing I could offer her. The girlfriend is long gone, he said, but the significance of the tattoo stays with him. So, he got his first tattoo-Veronica, his girlfriend’s name-done with a dressmaker pin. “It’s not like I could get her, like, something from the commissary,” he said.Ī tattoo was the only gift King could think of. While at Rikers Island jail in New York City, he wanted to show his appreciation and love to a girlfriend who said she would stick by his side while he was locked up. He’d stop going for food in the cafeteria for days and would even avoid the showers for about a week, he said.įor King and others, a tattoo can be used as a gift-giving ritual to loved ones on the outside. Khalid King, 38, who served 11 years for a robbery and got five tattoos while incarcerated, described how he would play a kind of duck-and-run game with prison guards to avoid being caught with fresh tattoos. Still, inmates often believe that tattoos are worth the risk. Tattoo on King's left arm shows a hand holding a crystal ball saying "Shadow Bred," because during his time in prison, he wanted to be in the shadows and not draw attention to himself. To get color, some inmates use liquid India ink that family members buy from arts and crafts stores. He would mix the leftover ash and soot with a bit of alcohol (for hygienic purposes). One former prisoner who now runs a tattoo shop said he used to make black ink by trapping soot in a milk carton placed over a burning pile of plastic razors or Bible pages. The springs inside gel pens can also flatten into needles. The needle itself is often made from a metal guitar string split in two by holding it over an open flame until it snaps in half, creating a fine point. (Tattoo artists who use beard trimmers can quickly put the shaver back on and trick guards searching for contraband.) Prisoners take apart beard trimmers or CD players to get at the tiny motor, which they can adapt to make the tattoo needle go up and down quickly enough. In Reddit threads and YouTube videos, former inmates describe the painstaking task of making tattoo machines and colored ink. And in a place where a loaf of bread is 30 cents and the price of peanut butter or jam is the same, the sales meant Glisson could eat well. “I could crank out about three machines a week, maybe one every other day, and charge $30 each,” he said. A tattoo machine, he said, sold for considerably more and could be made in a day. The state paid Glisson about $6.50 every other week for various prison jobs. (Nobody in prison has access to a sterilized tattoo parlor.) As a result, inmates who are caught freshly inked or making tattoo machines can be disciplined and put into solitary confinement, sometimes for days.Įric Glisson, 43, spent 17 years in Sing Sing making tattoo machines for extra money. “Not too different from in the world.”īut unlike those on the outside, prisoners must go to great-and often ingenious-lengths to get tattoos, using broken spoons and deodorant labels to create the foundation for tattoo machines and burnt ash for ink.īody artists and the people who manufacture tattoo machines are highly respected by other inmates, but they are viewed warily by guards and corrections officials who say tattoos carry health risks. “Some people want to look the part, some people actually do get them to illustrate their life story and some probably get them just because it's against the rules to get them done,” Grote said. “It was our way of saying thank you to each other,” said Grote, who left the Canaan federal prison in Pennsylvania two months ago after serving his sentence for a robbery.įrom notorious tattoos, such as a filled-in teardrop that connotes a murderer, to the more heartfelt, including girlfriends’ names or wedding bands, prison tattoos are badges of inmates’ identities. Some of the students inked Grote themselves, using tattoo machines fashioned out of CD players, pen casings and guitar strings.
Grote, 42, a prison teacher, had promised his students that if they passed their high school equivalency exams, he’d get a tattoo of their choice on his arms.Īlmost all his students passed, and by the end of the week Grote’s arms were a melange of tattoo art that included prison towers and William Blake poems. Dan Grote spent the last week of his seven-year prison term getting tattooed.
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