Knuckle Dots

Le Rack

Since I started working on Georges Street I've noticed an awful lot of people comin in with like pin point tattoo dots on their knuckles, almost always on thir right hands, and the people with them aren't people with regular tatt's they all have a lot of tatts, and are all lesser well off people...a lot of alcoholics and such...I know it all sounds awful but just wondering if anyone knows anything about these dots? Do they mean anything?

Goat Mouth

yeah i think it means ACAB
All Cops Are Bastards

Dirk Gently

A lot of people who have been in prison or in a gang get these sort of tatts, like the tear under the eye (prison) tatt. A lot of old lads have them.

Will

same with spider web tattoos

Le Rack

seen em on a good few women too...what does the tear drop mean now that it's been mentioned?

Dirk Gently

Le Rack wrote: »

.what does the tear drop mean now that it's been mentioned?

saddness, no freedom, being locked up alone.

Will

i thought it was referring to gang killings, one tear drop outline for one killing, said tear filled in for 2 killings etc.

longshanks

what about swallows and scorpions? a lot of the jailbird types have them as well

Dirk Gently

Wilburt wrote: »

i thought it was referring to gang killings, one tear drop outline for one killing, said tear filled in for 2 killings etc.

Perhaps you're right and this is a current spin but the tear drop is around a while, a while before gun killings became common. I find it hard to believe everyone with a tear has killed someone. I always saw it as being associated with prison itself.

Where do you work rack, secretary for a Dublin crime boss?

Crumble Froo

Well it's 9th and Hennepin
And all the donuts have
Names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are
On the sky like a tarp thrown over all this
And the broken umbrellas like
Dead birds and the steam
Comes out of the grill like
The whole goddamned town is ready to blow.
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs.
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And the rooms all smell like diesel
And you take on the
Dreams of the ones who have slept here.
And I'm lost in the window
I hide on the stairway
I hang in the curtain
I sleep in your hat
And no one brings anything
Small into a bar around here.
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear,
One for every year he's away she said, such
A crumbling beauty, but there's
Nothing wrong with her that
A hundred dollars won't fix, she has that razor sadness
That only gets worse
With the clang and thunder of the
Southern Pacific going by
As the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
Till you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out
Over the side to anyone who'll listen
And I've seen it
All through the yellow windows
Of the evening train.

copacetic

narco wrote: »

Well it's 9th and Hennepin
And all the donuts have
Names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are
On the sky like a tarp thrown over all this
And the broken umbrellas like
Dead birds and the steam
Comes out of the grill like
The whole goddamned town is ready to blow.
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs.
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And the rooms all smell like diesel
And you take on the
Dreams of the ones who have slept here.
And I'm lost in the window
I hide on the stairway
I hang in the curtain
I sleep in your hat
And no one brings anything
Small into a bar around here.
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear,
One for every year he's away she said, such
A crumbling beauty, but there's
Nothing wrong with her that
A hundred dollars won't fix, she has that razor sadness
That only gets worse
With the clang and thunder of the
Southern Pacific going by
As the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
Till you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out
Over the side to anyone who'll listen
And I've seen it
All through the yellow windows
Of the evening train.

nice, but Tom was talking new york, not inner city dublin..

truthinwords

I remember being told the 4 dots meant you were a member of the mountjoy club.

Crumble Froo

my apologies, lol...

Shelli

I just asked a friend of mine who has them, he says they mean "ACAB -all cops are bastards".

Kastro

yeah.. i have them, means acab generally... dosent matter what hand you get them on, a tear is usually a borstal tattoo from back in the day brought forward into modren sociaty through prison and prison gangs, as for crosses on the middle finger, they were largly popular with lads from kildare when they were in mountjoy.. it was a kinda gang related thing.. basically they looked after each other etc.. as for 3 dots between the thumb and forst index finger they generally mean acab or anarchy, 3 points representing "A" but are from diffrent parts of the world.. as for swallows.. it started with saliors, a swallow indicated you have traveled half of the world, when you had a second swallow it ment you have travled all the way around, from there it became a popular icon in "oldschool" (oldschool is the style of tattooing they did back in them days, but back then they called it tattooing.. they hadnt developed the smooth blending and shading, it was generally all flat) tattooing. as for the web on the elbow.. im not too sure, i think it was developed in prison by a mexican gang and from there as with everything you have people that will mimic.. someone seen a web that was actually quite well done and decided to get something simular..

jaysus my brain hurts.

SplashBack

Kastro wrote: »

yeah.. i have them, means acab generally... dosent matter what hand you get them on, a tear is usually a borstal tattoo from back in the day brought forward into modren sociaty through prison and prison gangs, as for crosses on the middle finger, they were largly popular with lads from kildare when they were in mountjoy.. it was a kinda gang related thing.. basically they looked after each other etc.. as for 3 dots between the thumb and forst index finger they generally mean acab or anarchy, 3 points representing "A" but are from diffrent parts of the world.. as for swallows.. it started with saliors, a swallow indicated you have traveled half of the world, when you had a second swallow it ment you have travled all the way around, from there it became a popular icon in "oldschool" (oldschool is the style of tattooing they did back in them days, but back then they called it tattooing.. they hadnt developed the smooth blending and shading, it was generally all flat) tattooing. as for the web on the elbow.. im not too sure, i think it was developed in prison by a mexican gang and from there as with everything you have people that will mimic.. someone seen a web that was actually quite well done and decided to get something simular..

jaysus my brain hurts.

What Kastro said! A swallow in nautical terms used to mean that a sailor had sailed the Atlantic Ocean and they became popular 'old-school' tattoos. Swallows and sparrows are now often used interchangeably for release, freedom etc (most commonly associated with ex-prisoners up until about 5-6 years ago when everyone and their granny started getting them off flash) Now loads of people have them. While its good to know the history behind a symbol (ie how many people get swastika's tattooed because it means luck, and good fortune in many eastern religions, since Hitler) every person has a different view on each symbol and what it means to them.

I've heard the ACAB thing too about the dots.

Le Rack

clown bag wrote: »

Where do you work rack, secretary for a Dublin crime boss?

Didn't Georges Street sorta give more than enough away!! Lol!
in Dunnes though...

Eire_Tattoo

The webs were used as they covered a large awkward area with the least amount of tattooing. They were ideal for elbows as symmetry wasn't as important as in other designs.