{"id":15320,"date":"2025-04-14T11:38:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/the-wrong-tattoo-can-get-you-stopped-by-police-but-artists-in-el-salvador-say-more-people-want-their-ink\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T11:38:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:38:04","slug":"the-wrong-tattoo-can-get-you-stopped-by-police-but-artists-in-el-salvador-say-more-people-want-their-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/the-wrong-tattoo-can-get-you-stopped-by-police-but-artists-in-el-salvador-say-more-people-want-their-ink\/","title":{"rendered":"The wrong tattoo can get you stopped by police. But artists in El Salvador say more people want their ink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gang tattoos were once a vital currency in El Salvador, just a few years ago when it was known as the \u201cmurder capital of the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some designs confirmed membership of MS-13 or 18th Street \u2014ultra-violent street organizations that ruled with machetes and intimidation \u2014 and commemorated slain gang members while issuing warnings to the living. <\/p>\n

Now, under the strict rule of President Nayib Bukele, suspected gang tattoos can be used as evidence of membership in an illegal organization, and lead to detention. Intelligence on those tattoos has also been shared by El Salvador with European countries dealing with gangs, and with the United States, where on Monday Bukele is set for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

Tattoos have been used as evidence to deport people from the US and while there are accusations the designs have been misread, El Salvador\u2019s Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said he could identify very specific meanings. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, they had to kill someone, kidnap someone, extort someone to be brought to trial. Now, having tattoos for these organizations is a crime,\u201d Garc\u00eda explained. <\/p>\n

Evidence of that crime is all around him, in the communal cells where convicted men and those still going through the court process are held. <\/p>\n

Cecot was built and opened after Bukele suspended some constitutional rights as he vowed to restore security to El Salvador. Critics say human rights have been forgotten in the mass roundup of men said to be gangsters, with innocents swept up in the dragnet, but the streets are undoubtedly more secure, and many residents say they have new freedom. <\/p>\n

The men taken off those streets and put in Cecot \u2014 officially named the Terrorism Confinement Center \u2014 now stare at visitors from behind bars, meekly obeying orders from armed guards. <\/p>\n

Both times we have seen former sworn enemies from MS-13 and 18th<\/sup> Street placed together in cells. In former times, their tattoos would have been enough for a turf war, now they are bunkmates. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mixed up, and that\u2019s the hardest thing,\u201d Hector Hernandez, a prisoner, told us. \u201cIt used to be different, but today the government has taken control.\u201d <\/p>\n

His tattoos showed him to be an active member of MS-13, a status he said was still valid, even inside Cecot. He said each design had to be earned, mainly through murder. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is to kill and deserve to be a gang member.\u201d <\/p>\n

The ink covers some faces, necks, arms and torsos, but Garc\u00eda says law enforcement knows there are \u201cvery specific\u201d marks that point to gang affiliation and not something innocent. <\/p>\n

He had two men remove their prison-issue plain white T-shirts as he explained the new regulations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a hunt just because a person has tattoos,\u201d he said. \u201cAuthorities are searching for members of terrorist organizations who have specific tattoos that identify them with that type of organization.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Tattoos were used by gangs to commemorate fallen members and issue warnings, officials said.<\/span> <\/div>
Evelio Contreras\/CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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An M and an S adorn a prisoner’s chest, said to represent the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang.<\/span> <\/div>
Evelio Contreras\/CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The clearest are the letters and numbers from the gang names: MS with 13 in regular or Roman numerals, or 18 for their rivals in the 18th<\/sup> Street gang. <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda pointed to the body of a man he said was a clique leader of MS-13 who had been convicted for aggravated homicide. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has various tattoos on his body related to MS-13. He is an active member,\u201d Garc\u00eda said. <\/p>\n

On the man\u2019s back was a large design of Santa Muerte, a female Grim Reaper that became a symbol of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico before becoming adopted by MS-13. <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda said the other man was an assassin for 18th<\/sup> Street. He had X, V, III running down one side of his torso. Both inmates confirmed their associations with various cliques and areas where they operated. <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda said some symbols he had seen warned people to see nothing, hear nothing and do nothing against the gangs, while others commemorated dead comrades or other personal connections: \u201cWomen they love, women who\u2019ve betrayed them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tattoos honoring Real Madrid and depicting a hummingbird<\/h2>\n

Once Bukele\u2019s regime started retaking control of the streets and locking up people with tattoos, the gangs stopped requiring inked bodies as proof of loyalty, Garc\u00eda said, so law enforcement focused on other ways to identify criminals. <\/p>\n

But elsewhere, tattoos are still seen as evidence of guilt. <\/p>\n

Authorities in the United States have deported hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang, as well as Salvadorans alleged to be MS-13, to El Salvador, where they are now being held in Cecot. <\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n
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Jerce Reyes and his partner Mariyin Araujo in 2018. Reyes’s soccer themed tattoo is visble on his left arm.<\/span> <\/div>
Courtesy Jerce Reyes family<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMy brother has tattoos because he\u2019s an artist but that doesn\u2019t make him a criminal,\u201d Nelson said. <\/p>\n

From gang allegiance to art<\/h2>\n

Alejandra Angel, a tattooist in the capital San Salvador, explained: \u201cNever in the history of this country would you see a guy with tattoos working in a restaurant or in a Walmart, never. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they \u2018cleaned up\u2019 the country everything has changed (with) the visibility of tattoos.\u201d <\/p>\n

Angel said she had been a little nervous when the ongoing \u201ctemporary\u201d state of emergency was first imposed in March 2022. One of her arms is blacked out, she says to cover designs she no longer liked, but it could appear suspicious to police. <\/p>\n

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Camilo Rodriguez says these days his clients include professionals like doctors and lawyers.<\/span> <\/div>
Evelio Contreras\/CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tattoos are becoming more common among all kinds of people choosing to show their style, artists said.<\/span> <\/div>
Evelio Contreras\/CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another artist, Camilo Rodriguez, from a different salon, said he had been questioned twice by police about his tattoos at the beginning of the crackdown. But once he explained their significance he said he was free to go. <\/p>\n

They said the gangs used to have their own tattooists or coerced people to ink designs. <\/p>\n

But now people are free to choose, the artists said, and are no longer afraid of having something on their arm. <\/p>\n

\u201cTattoos are for everyone,\u201d said Rodriguez, who added his clients now included doctors and lawyers. \u201cIt\u2019s a very personal language, and you can do whatever you want with it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gang tattoos were once a vital currency in El Salvador, just a few years ago when it was known as the \u201cmurder capital of the world.\u201d Some designs confirmed membership of MS-13 or 18th Street \u2014ultra-violent street organizations that ruled with machetes and intimidation \u2014 and commemorated slain gang members while issuing warnings to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}