Noho Hank’s Tattoos Explained
Since Anthony Carrigan decided that Hank’s tattoos should point at his backstory, it’s definitely something that we should look into. So far, I have seen only one post about them, which described some of them the way I am about to do, but I also want to add some stuff to many of them and, as a true overthinker, speculate more about their meaning.
Anthony also said that they aimed for an approximation of real russian prison tattoos, as it would be too dangerous for Anthony to wear real prison tattoos (among the prisoners, it’s actually punishable by death if someone has tattoos they didn’t earn or which lie about their past in crime and prison). This means that I mostly looked for real prison tattoos that look the most alike and could explain the meaning well.
As a friendly warning, this may get quite sad.
Unfortunately, there are not many scenes in which his fingers are focused on, but we can still clearly recognize multiple chess figures. Anthony himself explained the meaning of this one - trying to think multiple moves ahead, but it’s also a nice reference to his real life wife who is a professional chess player.
According to Guardian, a lighthouse prison tattoo shows a desire for freedom. There is also a sentence written above the lighthouse, but there is no good shot of it.
Four outer dots represent walls, the middle one the prisoner.
Of course this may point at Hank’s religion. He also wear a necklace with a russian orthodox cross.
However, this Vice article (*Bill Hader’s deep voice* Dronez.) claims that religious tattoos have a different meaning in the prison system and a cross should show a devotion to the thieves’ traditions.
And the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume II (yes, i went that deep) says that a cross is a symbol of subordination or slavery and is sometimes tattooed involuntarily, as warnings or punishment for transgressions.
Radioactive sign / hexagon (3 of 6)
Anthony Carrigan said that one of his tattoos shows that he served 3 out of 6 years and this tattoo seems like the one he is talking about.
However, if it really is meant to be a biohazard sign, there are multiple possible meanings described online. One of them is a simple “stay away, i’m dangerous”. Another is a representation of HIV positive individuals in gay communities (although I also read that giving this meaning to this sign is very offensive towards HIV positive people and I feel like HBO and the writers would notice this and not include it in the show). Anyway, even if the tattoo has something to do with HIV, it doesn’t have to mean that Hank has this disease - it can also be used as a protective tattoo in prisons, as it can protect the person from sexual abuse and rape.
There is also a small crown above the hexagon tattoo which usually represents authority and would therefore in my opinion fit the best the “stay away” meaning of the hexagon.
I haven’t found a meaning for a combination of a skull and a star so we’ll assign the meaning to them separately. A skull generally represents a murderer or someone who stands up against authority. A 8-pointed star usually represents someone with a semi-authority among thieves which I think fits to Hank perfectly. Some might say that it’s not a star but a sun so I also looked up the meaning for a sun and the number and length of its rays can indicate number of convictions or years in prison. Also some people think it’s a (moral) compass.
I think this is the tattoo that is the least like the real life prison tattoos as they usually show huge churches or buildings like Kremlin with cupolas. The number of cupolas should indicate how many times the person was convicted.
This is the only shot we get of this tattoo. I can only say that it definitely has something to do with prison since the grid should represent the prison bars.
Skull + Nose? + Crab claws?
Candelabra with 4 candles in front of a spider web
Candles represent light over darkness or the flow of time. Spider webs usually also show a spider and the spider’s position says something about the criminal’s current situation - if the spider is in the middle or up, it means the criminal is still devoted to the gang, if the spider is heading down or somewhere on the edge of the web, it means that the criminal is leaving the crime world. However, I can’t recognize a spider in Hank’s tattoo at all, hopefully later seasons will give us more shots of this one and also an explanation for why exactly 4 candles.
It usually looks just like a black spot on his left inner forearm but in some scenes it is clearly a black spade which usually represents a thief in the prison system.
Anthony Carrigan: “One of the tattoos is a scorpion which meant he did time in the hole.“
Scorpions generally mean time spent in prison or in solitary confinement, other sources say that “scorpion may also be a symbol of drug addiction. If the stinger is up, it means that the wearer is still using drugs. Stinger down means the wearer has quit.”
It seems like Hank used to have a tattoo on his right hand. Russian prisoners are well known for forcefully removing tattoos of other prisoners who haven’t earned this tattoo, leaving chemical burn scars, before beating them or worse. In some cases, tattoos were removed by Russian authorities. It is also possible that the tattoo was given forcefully and Hank got rid of it later. Or that he decided to get and later also remove the tattoo. However, these scars/remains of the tattoo make me feel really sad for Hank’s past.
As Anthony Carrigan said, Hank has had a hard life. During the whole research of his tattoos, I was thinking of his terrified face when Batir told him he would go back to Chechnya and his desire to be as American as possible.
I hope we get to see his full backstory in later seasons. So far, we can only certainly say that he was convicted once and served 3 out of 6 years in prison. This post was also made specifically for later reference - if new episodes tell us something new, we can come back and add it here.
Feel free to add any ideas to this post or send me an ask.
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