Prison Tattoo Symbols — Cards, Saber, Bayonet, Barbed Wire, Bear, Arrow and Key

Three cards pierced by an arrow

A body mark of card cheats.

A saber without a scabbard

The tattoo symbolizes aggressiveness and a hidden threat. Applied on the forearm, wrist. A saber in a scabbard means that the criminal has “tied up.” Found very rarely.

A crossed arrow and key

The symbol of a burglar, a house thief. Applied on the forearm or thigh.

A bayonet

The oldest symbol of the thieves’ world. It symbolized threat, warning, strength. Applied on the wrist, forearm, sometimes on the thigh. The tattoo was found among repeat offenders. Today it is observed extremely rarely.

A fragment of barbed wire

A generalized symbol indicating that the owner of the tattoo has passed through a correctional labor institution. Applied on the wrist.

A bear holding a medieval axe with a club suit image

Indicates a safecracker. May also mean that the convict served a sentence at a “lesopoval” — a correctional labor camp specializing in logging.

“The law is the taiga, the ladle is the norm, the bear is the prosecutor.”