11 Creepy Tattoos From Famous Killers

In addition to spilling blood, killers have been to known to get inked, expressing themselves in the ways of the flesh through the dark arts of tattoo sorcery! Naturally, this involves a lot of awkward facial architecture and stringy neck smears; numbers, symbols, even confessions are wrapped around them. 

Some recipients of killer body art, like Mexican drug cartel assassin, Gabriel Cardona, want you to see the evil in their eyes, emphasizing it with two pairs of eyes. Los Angeles gang member, Anthony Garcia, wears a pictorial confession in tattoo form on his chest with his gang name plastered above, and "Death Row X3" sits on William Clyde Gibson's skullcap (it's an error, though, since a person can only be sentenced to death twice).

Swastikas are a common motif here, as are pentagrams and general Satanic imagery. These are bad guys and they wear it on their sleeves, as well as their faces and eyeballs! When they can't get it done properly, they draw things on their hands and carve things into their heads. Now, that's devotion.

On his left arm, serial killer Carl Panzram had a tattoo of a boat's anchor. On his right was another anchor with an eagle and a Chinese man's head. On his chest flew two eagles with the words "Liberty & Justice" tattooed under their wings. Panzram lost his freedom when he was arrested for his brutal crimes, for which he was publicly hanged in 1930.

Curtis Allgier, a white supremacist cop-killer, is literally covered in ink. Swastikas and various angular patterns decorate his face and neck. Above his eyes is the text "SKIN HEAD." In 2015, Allgier lost his right to an attorney because he kept threatening his lawyers and calling them "clowns." Kind of ironic, no?

During his trial in the 1970s, notorious cult leader Charles Manson carved an "X" into his forehead. Later, he decided to expand it into a full-on swastika tattoo, and debuted it during a 1981 interview with NBC. According to filmmaker, Nikolas Schreck, who interviewed him at the time, Manson was not insane; he was only "acting that way out of frustration."

David Adam Pate, who was sentenced to life in 2015 for stabbing a man to death in South Carolina, sports a mean "Satan" tattoo on his face, as well as long streaks on his neck, and the obligatory tear marks around his eyes. Interestingly enough, Pate's tongue is also forked. Fittingly, his brothers call him "the devil."

Pazuzu Illah Algarad, 35, was arrested in 2014 after police discovered he had murdered, mutilated, and cannibalized two men in Clemmons, NC, with the help of his wife. Algarad, a self-described devil-worshipper who claimed to have been named after the demon from The Exorcist, ate parts of his victims, and wore the proof on his face: he had the word "cannibal" tattooed on it. Later, he killed himself in jail.

Many Russian serial killers are tattooed, and extensively so. Details in these tattoos explain their crimes, their associations, and their plans. Arkady Bronnikov, a Russian expert on criminal tattoo iconography, has documented many such killers at the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Bronnikov often visits correctional facilities to interview prisoners, and has assembled a "massive photographic catalog," one that has actually helped solve multiple cases throughout the Motherland.

Los Angeles gang member Anthony Garcia was arrested seven years after committing a homicide after officers spotted his unique tattoo. The ink depicted the killing itself: a peanut-shaped rival being sprayed by bullets at the entrance of a liquor store. On the top of Garcia's chest, and right above the grisly scene, lies the text "RIVERA KILLS," clearly referring to his street gang, Rivera-13. "Think about it," marveled Captain Mike Parker. "He tattooed his confession on his chest."

Mexican drug cartel assassin Gabriel Cardona still wears his ink proudly from his jail cell. Cardona, once an active member of the Zetas, sports an outer pair of eyeballs tattooed on his own, thus giving him the perceived ability to sleep with both eyes open. As if that weren't menacing enough, Cardona's back is adorned with an image of "Santa Muerte," or the Saint of Death.

In 2014, serial killer William Clyde Gibson got a tattoo while in police custody. At the time, police said they're unsure how he got it, who gave it to him, and exactly when the tattoo was applied to the back of his head. It read "Death Row X3," a reference to Gibson's convictions in three separate murders. However, since a person can only be sentenced to death twice, the tattoo is a bit misleading.

When killers Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from prison in 2015, authorities released photos of their tattoos to the public. Matt had a Marine Corps logo and eagle on his right shoulder, a snake on his left, and two hearts intertwined on his chest. Sweat has an all-caps "REBEL" engraved on his left arm and the letters "I," "F" and "B" on his his right fist. These runaways were eventually captured (only Sweat survived the ordeal).