Tattoos are also used to communicate who the inmates are as people - for example, white supremacists will display prominent tattoos to show their beliefs.

Almost all maras display tattoos on their bodies as a sign of their affiliation to their gang.

Slower, stiller images are more characteristic: a man sitting in a drab interior proffers a revolver; various women display bruises, tattoos or scars.

One of the employees goes shirtless, the better perhaps to display his piercings and tattoos.

It was the one possibly nonutilitarian piece on the man (though his skin had also displayed tattoos).

The gestures and images are aggressively macho: crotch-grabbing hands, gyrating pelvises, body-builders' torsos, bulging biceps, often displaying tattoos, leather, jeans, studded denim.

At Microsoft, Moore gained notoriety for displaying tattoos of Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV that he used when announcing the respective games.

At Shine on Tuesday night, the three women wore corsets; two had elaborate lacy dresses, while the third proudly displayed tattoos and a pierced lip.

People open up - unzip their jackets and trousers, display wounds, tattoos, growths on their genitals, suffering, resignation, defiant dignity and seriousness that is alternately wan and fierce.

Many Bataillonnaires displayed tattoos covering much of the body, as was customary in the French criminal underworld of the early 20th century.