{"id":6052,"date":"2021-01-28T06:37:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T16:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saved-tattoo.com\/?p=6052"},"modified":"2024-01-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T00:00:00","slug":"what-does-the-teardrop-tattoo-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saved-tattoo.com\/what-does-the-teardrop-tattoo-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does The Teardrop Tattoo Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Teardrop tattoos can often be seen in TV shows, celebrities, and even some criminal stories. However, their meaning and origin have a much deeper history than shown in pop culture. The teardrop tattoos are most commonly found on the face, near one of the eyes, and sometimes both. The teardrop tattoo has been controversial for a long time, due to being associated with the criminal life and record of some people.<\/p>\n
However, the real meaning of the teardrop tattoo varies in the great matter of how one perceives it. Certainly, some primary meanings are associated with life in prison, serving a sentence, or even some sad and negative event in life.<\/p>\n
So, what does the teardrop tattoo mean in reality? This article covers all the facts we could find on the teardrop tattoo origin, as well as the symbolism behind it. Further on, we answered some commonly asked questions about the teardrop tattoos, that you may have been interested in.<\/p>\n
It is believed that the teardrop tattoo has a long history. However, the origin of this highly-controversial tattoo could potentially be lost in history. The reason for that is because, for the longest of time, it has been associated with prison life and all the potential downsides of it.<\/p>\n
However, the first potential appearance of the teardrop tattoos in the mainstream media made the headlines in the 1970s New Yorker magazine. The popular magazine then published an article about the life of a Mexican gang member who was sentenced to a certain time in the United States prison.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the first time it was heard that the teardrop tattoo was used in prison, and it was drawn for various reasons such as sorrow, loss of an inmate, some criminal events that were taking place inside the prison cells, and others. The teardrop also represented the struggle inside the prison cells, but more about that later.<\/p>\n
According to some stories about the teardrop symbolism in tattoos, it was believed that the prison cell inmates who are more dominant, aggressive, and impatient and want to impose their dominance, would force the more submissive inmate to get a teardrop tattoo.<\/p>\n
This occurrence mostly took place when the more dominant inmate would show the signs of violence and disrespect towards the less dominant inmate, by treating him poorly, abusing, humiliating, and even raping them.<\/p>\n
In some other prisons, the most dominant inmates, who committed the most crimes, would be the proud wearers of the teardrop tattoos. Some that had many teardrops tattooed on their face, usually under the right eye, but sometimes under both of them were believed to have killed many people and were using this tattoo method to keep up with the count of murders.<\/p>\n
Now that we detailed the potential origin of the teardrop tattoo, it\u2019s time to look at some meanings, both those that are related to life in prison, as well as the meaning that isn\u2019t entirely related to the prison life and a hefty criminal record.<\/p>\n