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.
