Anybody familiar with.....

[Tgace]

Came across a Vietnamese male today, he had tattoos of Vietnamese words written in english on both forearms and back, and was missing his left little finger. Anybody know if these are gang indicators?? I know the Japanese Yakuza amputate fingers, but am not familiar with Vietnamese groups. Just for my education.

 

[Gary Crawford]

Never heard of anything like that.Did you get to talk to him?

 

[Tgace]

Said the tats were "about his family"...wouldnt talk about the finger. Involved untaxed cigarettes in large ammounts. Havent found much in internet searches.

 

[Gary Crawford]

Veitnemese justic no doubt!

 

[Tgace]

"Justic" ?

 

[dearnis.com]

I have had very limited experience with vietnamese gang members (just not part of our demographic here); one viet who was a, um, problem arrest, some years back did have extensive yakuza-style tats. If you have any internet contacts on the job in SoCal or south Louisiana that would be the place to ask.

 

[Tgace]

Thanks, some more internet searches show that cigarette smuggling and Vietnamese gangs are known to be in my general area (US/CAN border). Predominantly a customs thing, but may be worth a closer look.

 

[Baoquan]

There are plenty of Viet gangs here in Aus, and they definately use tattoos as signifiers. No personal knowledge of digital amputation, though.

 

[loki09789]

Said the tats were "about his family"...wouldnt talk about the finger. Involved untaxed cigarettes in large ammounts. Havent found much in internet searches.

The finger thing could be simple consequence of an 'active' lifestyle. Or, more realistically:

1. The demonstrative gesture of sacrifice by amputation is more Eastern fanaticism than specifically Japanese. The Yakuza just got the popular association.

2. The up and coming Oriental youth gangs are 'wannabe' hardcore and adopting rituals that they think would be acts of that from an oriental role model.

We have a common friend from our past who might know more about this if you want to dig further. Her name starts with a T.

 

[Ceicei]

On the other hand, his finger may have no relationship with his tattoos...

- Ceicei

 

[MA-Caver]

OR "on the OTHER hand" his tattoos might be talking about his missing finger




(sorry couldn't resist :boing2: )

 

[WildCater]

he, mabe a wanna be gangster, probabaly a thug. in my opinion, a wanna be!.