POST 10 : TATTOOS & GANGS

      

Los Angeles Gang Culture

Credit Robert Yager

Rubble Kings Directed by Shan Nicholson
Saboteur Media
Opens June 19, AMC Empire 25

Robert Yager’s Photos of Gang Life in Los Angeles

photographer: Donna de Cesare

East L.A. : Street Fotografien von Gregory Bojórquez

1)

At first sight we can say, having a tattoo is a phenomenon in vogue . One thing is sure , the fact that celebrities like football player, actress ,singer … make tattoos and use it as something fashionable in full view of everybody ,this make a big impact in nowadays society.  Everybody want a tattoo! However we can’t omit that tattoos were used before to mark animals, slaves and prisoners and beyond any doubt, in a lot of culture make a tattoo is like a rite of passage because of the pain.     One thing is sure, the reason to make a tattoo are varied. Some people make tattoos as a form of self expression and society's rebellion, for instance when we talk about gangs, tattoos are use to now that you are part of a gang, or you kill someone. We can use it also like as a kind of remember you want keep for all your life; it’s very symbolical; thanks to tattoos you show what’s happened in your own life. At this stage I think that the reason why more and more people wear tattoos are very varied (self expression, religion,rebellion,gangs,memory).

2)

First of all the fact that Young people join gangs it is an important topic in society.   We need to emphasize that the young people who join gangs are from underprivileged social backgrounds and broken homes. So it is clear, they are young and they have had already a really hard life between drugs, guns, violence…They have psychological weakness and they can be easily influenced.  They join gangs because they see a kind a family (the gang community), they feel in security with tough guys, they are in surrogate family. Young people can have easy money, drugs, drinks, they kill people, use fear in the suburb, and they feel special. For my part I think that on the one hand they need freedom, and gangs are like freedom for young people but on the other hand they really need help to get off the gangs.

3) To start with, i think we have two topics which are closely connected. In gangs we had saw that they use tattoos to be identify from a gang ,they also represent either a person killed or time served in jail, so it is clear that they are mark of power and prestige between gang members. But tattoos are also use to show your life, your achievement. One thing is sure you can’t take off tattoos without surgery, so pain… it is the same as you can’t get off a gang without pain, it’s in relation. I have the hunch that we can relate both topic , the gang because they have the power of fear , money, drugs, power to kill it’s like a power but a bad power, not well use , and finally tattoos because they are the power of your life in your body.

POST 9: The Draw of 'Dead Town' - A Newsweek article (February 16, 2009)

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

 

                                                                  Gabriel Hinojos

Laura Bush poses for photos with Homeboy Industries representatives, Gustavo Mojica, Herbert Corleto and Gabriel Hinojos, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005 at Howard University in Washington, at the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth. I. Gabriel Hinojos is the guy that we talk in this newspaper article , he was part of a gang in L.A. and he tried to getting out of this street gang , we should explain that is a really hard situation " Getting out of a street gang in L.A. is about like getting a tattoo removed :slow paintful,scarring." . He has been at Folsom State Prison and he has got a tattoo "he got his teardrop"actually he tried to remove his tattoo "with laser surgery" to forgot this horrible past. Nowadays , Gabriel changes "became a kind poster child"who leaves behind the gang life . Actually the last sentence of the text is that he returned to jail , so he fell again in gang life. II."Ya 'stuvo" is a tattoo removal center ,it's call with a spanish slang "spanish slang for "that's enough,i'm done with that" " in this center you can remove your tattoo with laser surgery .  Some guys who were part of a gang, came and remove their tatoos like for example , Gabriel who has a teardrop "tattoed just below the eye" . I think the name of the center is really simbolical because is like to say , it's over , i don't want to be part of a gang any more and i leave my tattoos to show that i'm not part of gang, i start a new life . III. The black teardrops is a symbolic tattoo, gabriel got them just below the eye and is to know that he was part of a group , was in a prison or kill somoene " . Gabriel got his teardrop from doing time at Folsom State prison . It has been really painful to take off the teardrop . Actuallly , in my opinion , to extrat the teardrop ,is like to forget the life in the gang and don't look back again. IV. The sentence "this is the 45th visit " (line 11) imply about Gabriel hinojos that he has maybe a lot of tattoos al around his body ,since his part of the gang because ,tattoos are like a reward . It's his 45th visit in the tattoo removal center so this lead us to think that he really wants to remove all his tattoos and delete his past on his body. V. Getting out of a gang is not easy , you can see it when Gabriel says "Getting out of a street in L.A. is about lile getting a tattoo removed : slow,painful,scarring.It's a complicate situation . VI. It's not always possible , you can see it when Gabriel says "In street lore,a gang banger can never laeave a really brutal gan like Mara Salvatrucha ." also when he says "But escaping the pull of gang life is extreamly diffiult ." VII. Is feasible in the conditions that you know as Gabriel that you want to change , you go to prison , you are appologie for the crime that you have commited ,you try to forget you past ,like Gabriel , getting his tattooo removed , and became a kind person . VIII."Extremely difficult "   , Gabriel use this sentense to says that is impossible to leave a gang in the moment that you are inside a gang , you are died in a way because for the other guys of the gang you will be a looser and they will kill you because they are very brutal and they just want to kill. IX. The last three sentense explain that Gabriel changed, and became a kind person , who forgot this black past and who celebrate his achievement with the first lady Laura Bush at the White House so actually it's a big progress. But the last sentence is " afew months later , he was back to jail " so he returned in prison after all this long path , he fell again in the gang  life .  dddddng  in the aggain  X. In this photograph we saw a doctor's hand working to remove Gabriel's gang marking, it's obvious that Gabriel is painful , he grits his teeth so hard . This photograph by Justin Maxon illustrates this article ,because this article talk about Gabriel and the biggest part is about how he remove the tatttoos with laser surgery and also , in the article, he explained , how you feel when you remove your own tattoos. Well you can see the feeling in his face in the photograph.