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.