For these inmates, crudely carved tattoos tell their prison stories

 By 
Elizabeth Pierson
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Ballpoint pen ink, guitar wires and engines from a toy are used by inmates to crudely carve tattoos into their fellow prisoners behind bars at a prison in Cebu City, Philippines.

Tattoos -- or "patik" as the inmates call them -- are commonplace in prisons though these types of tattoos are considered a prison violation in the U.S.

In many places outside the U.S., prison tattooing is fair game, and can be used to designate allegiances within the prison or as a form of self-expression in an otherwise barren place.

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