A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang, despite the man having no connection to the group.
The tattoo is of a clock, and other tattoos listed as evidence of gang membership include mistranslated text and Chicago Bulls fandom tattoos.
I should mention, my Spanish is good enough that I can say “Real Hasta La Muerte” does not mean just “Till Death.”
It means “Royal until death.”
And Royal (Real in Spanish) is the name of the largest football club out of Madrid, so there is a very high likelihood that it just means “I like this football club until I die.” Their symbol is a crown, which is separately claimed as a Tren de Agua symbol, and so Real fans might be gettin swept up in ICE raids in the USA.
It would be funny if the victims weren’t getting indefinite stays in a foreign gulag, but that is where it stands today.
Real fans might be gettin swept up in ICE raids in the USA.
As a Liverpool fan, I find this completely acceptable.
(Jk, even Real fans should have their rights respected)
That was not the loudest laugh I’ve had today, but definitely the morally worst laugh I had today, so cheers XD
You’re all right. The title of “morally-worst laugh of the day” went to Elon Musk already. As usual.
You’re very welcome 😁
Stay in your league, mate.
Jeez, at least Real fans have standards. Unlike Barca……
Edit: I can’t make this joke in EPL because ManU :(
Stay in your league, mate.
You mean the Champions League where we have lost more finals to the financially doped to the gills Real Madrid than anyone else for the past 20 years? Is that the league you want me to focus on?
Real hasta la muerte, is actually a phrase popular amongst reggaeton fans. It was popularized by Wisin and Yandel in the musical genre. It became a cultural definition of the attitude towards life of being always real, as in not fake. Not a poser, genuine legitimate, not pretending to be someone you’re not. It was an attitude reactionary against the intrusiveness of north american record companies trying to comodify Puerto Rican music and artists. It also marks a social statement against rich white or privileged hispanic descendants who attempt to pose as members of a culture they don’t belong to. And also pride about their Latin culture, as they don’t need to pretend to be American or change their art to sell more and appease the anglo market either.
A more appropriate translation is “I’ll be true to myself until I die”.
It became a Puerto Rican music label, and is also the name of a popular album by reggaeton artist, Anuel. It has nothing to do with crime gangs. But it’s also not about football. Hispanic fans rarely use “hasta la muerte” to express support, we have plenty of other more idiomatic expressions.
T.I.L. :) Thanks!
I’ll bet they used some dumb fucking “AI” to screw this innocent guy over
Like Grok? I’m sure it was used for the tariffs
Had to chuckle at the Michael Jordan tattoo.
Anyone with a 90s era tattoo is off to a concentration camp courtesy of these idiots.
The Nautical Star tattoo they link means something COMPLETELY different…
https://www.autostraddle.com/i-saw-the-sign-lgbt-symbols-then-and-now-140061/
“Oh, shit, my sister is in a Venezuelan gang!”
Funny enough the nautical star IS a gang tattoo… In Russian prisons.
Wait that star is supposed to be nautical? And gay?
That’s brand new to me! Both the symbology and the magazine, and I love them both. Thanks!
Sorry, folks, but if you are planning on visiting the USA for a vacation any time soon then you are a fool. Particularly if you look even remotely Hispanic or Middle-eastern.
Aren’t clock tattoos like such a cliché that tattoo artists role their eyes when you ask for one? Are a bunch of millennials and gen-x deemed gang members because they followed a trend?
Are a bunch of millennials and gen-x deemed gang members because they followed a trend?
Yes. That’s the point. They decide they don’t like someone because of something they posted on social media, or texted, or whatever, then they look for a tattoo that they can pretend means gang membership, and boom, the person who dared to say something against them is sent to the new gulag.
They’re using tattoos because there’s a segment of America all pearl-clutchy about them, who subconsciously think anyone with a tat must be trash and involved in gang stuff. And because some people assume those with tats are trash, it’s easier to vanish them without as much widespread protest. The presence of tats will be used to victim-blame.
It’s similar to how various drugs were targeted to get rid of white liberal hippies who smoked weed and black people by throwing them in jail. Find some trait that a portion of the population you want to lock up shares, make it illegal or, in this case, a “symbol” of “gang membership”, then whisk away the people you intended to target all along.
Up until the early 2000’s Grateful Dead Merch was considered “probable cause,” by US LEOs. They make up whatever shit they want to, and always have.
Various depictions of clocks are common in prison tattoos, for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t mean all clock tattoos are prison tattoos. I have seen gang tattoos that were depictions of a woman with a pistol or a woman swinging on an inverted carpenter’s hammer.
I’m a tattoo artist and SOOOOOOOOO many parents get a clock for every damn kid and set the hands to the time or even date the kid was born.
When I was a kid, this hippie college student gave me advice about tattoos. He said “never get a tattoo, the government already has too many ways to track and identify you.” When I was in my 20s, I watched a guy get arrested because his tattoos gave him away. He was wanted for a felony but he had used his brother’s identity documents to get a driver’s license. The cops had a database with the tattoos of former inmates, including him. They suspected him but didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him until they saw his tattoos. Tattoos and branding have been used by many governments for centuries to mark convicted criminals. The reason you hold up your right hand in court was originally so they could see your criminal history. It is also where we get the term a “marked man” There is no good reason to get a tattoo and lots of reasons why it’s a bad idea.
Ilkeston. Fortunately most of the pubs are at the top of Bath Street. Used to be a great chip shop there that served spam fritters and the owner in his 70s would regularly cycle to Skegness.
