What does a red teardrop tattoo symbolize?

Answer 1

Took a life in prison.

That is wrong, it is not that you took a life in prison or that you have taken a life period. This is the answer that most people think it is but frankly you are an idiot if you think someone who has taken another's life would actual put something permanently on their body that confesses their crime. The real meaning of a tear drop tattoo of any color is the loss of a loved one. I am a tattoo artist, and I also tattooed for a while in prison.

In the UK at least: This is originally a prison tattoo (circa 1920, I may be wrong) it generally shows that time has been served and it was a sorrowful time. It has also been used to commemorate a loved one who has died while the prisoner served time or even to symbolise the number of people that a person might have killed. If the teardrop tattoo is just in the form of an outline, it implies that a friend of the wearer was killed. If a teardrop tattoo is coloured inside the outline it represents that the wearer's friend has been killed and the wearer has taken revenge of his friend's death.

An empty tear thus symbolizes that a loved one has been killed or the wearer has successfully shot someone else. A filled teardrop tattoo represents that a loved one has committed suicide or was killed by some cause other than a murder. It could be an accident or a death penalty. A teardrop tattoo on face with an empty top and a full bottom symbolizes that the wearer has taken a revenge of the murder of a loved one. An empty teardrop tattoo on face also symbolizes a person's time served in prison, which is usually a year at least. Teardrop tattoo can also be inked as a remembrance of a loved one who passed away while the wearer was incarcerated

NEVER undertake a tattoo like this without knowing it's true nature please as you never know who you may meet who may get the wrong idea or impression about you.

Again, I work in the industry.

Answer 2

a red teardrop tattoo is common with white supremacists, but mostly actual KKK members. a red teardrop doesn't mean murder or death or anything else. only those who are in the KKK or have been the last few years know this. My girlfriends dad is in the KKK and we all just learned this so I've been doing research as well.