Like in Japan,criminal groups around the world have long embraced tattoo's bad reputation...

[narrator] Like in Japan,
criminal groups around the world have long embraced tattoo's bad reputation as a way to mark themselves
as dangerous and apart from society. Tattooing thrived in prisons, where inmates pricked themselves
using makeshift materials, like guitar strings and black soot. [reporter]
This one was made out of a Walkman and used by an inmate artist
to scratch out some jailhouse tattoos. [narrator] So prison tattoos
usually had thin lines and no color, which became a signature style. Tattoos showed up as significant markers
in gang and biker culture, criminal underworlds, and for a long time,
that's where tattoo stayed