墙導所 受刑者의 文身

Tattoo and Prisoner

Investigation of tattooed prisoner has never been reported in Korea. A ll tattooed prisoners (number of 234) kept in Masan Correctional Institution on June, 1982 were studied and compared with those who were not tattooed (number of 1046). Investigation of proportion, age, place, feelings, content, location, number, and educational level, and comparison of the tattooed w ith the nontattooed prisoners as to their nature of convicted offense and its frequency have shown following interesting results: Result I ： 1) 17. 2 per cent of the total group (1357) were tattooed. 2) Highest subject (18.2%) were followed to be 18 years in age and tattooers (81. 2%) were perfomed after age of 18 years. 3) The prison was the most common place for tattooing (52. 3 percent of all tattooers). 4) Most tattooers were sober when tattooed (63.9% “sober” versus “drinking and or drunken state” 36.1 per cent) 5) Surprisingly, most of tattooed (99%) wants its removal by way of surgical or another method (97.9% “repentance” versus “satisfaction and or joyful one” 2. 1%) 6) Among the various contents of tattoos, letters were most frequently seen (40. 5% ), and the most common site was the forearm (65%). 7) 48.7% of the tattooed had one tattoo only. And 51. 3 per cent had more than one tattoo. 8) The tattooed criminals had lower education level. Result A ： 1) Stealing and violence were more prevalent and homicide was less prevalent in tattooed criminals. 2) By analysis of the nature of crime, the tattooed criminal is more prone to felonious (major) and money related crime. In non tattooed criminals, money related crime is higher and the felonious (serious violence) crime is low. 3) Non tattooed men were less likely to be convicted once or more, in contrast to tattooed men. 4) The specificity of these tattoo and the nature of crime are closely related: the prisoner’s tattoo is somewhat different from non criminals, that was reflected to their own delicts with their various kind of personality disorders.