..... SO WHO CARES ?
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Speculations on the unconscious security guard in CAMs Office
While writing 'Dungeon on the Mind-Stage' I stumbled also across Sherlock's torturer in Serbia - who seems to be quite a special Sherlock mirror. And on the upper arm of this man is a very visible tattoo. As this character isn't the only Sherlock mirror who wears a tattoo I began to wonder if this could be an interesting trace to follow. And I was not disappointed.
More under the cut ....
The unconscious man at CAMs Office (HLV) is a character who appears just for seconds. He has not the slightest impact on the plot, no text and vanishes without a trace. Why is he even here at all? What's the meaning of this man? Could this guy really be a mirror for Sherlock?
SHERLOCK: 'Another in here. Security.'
This man is a security guard! That's interesting. Because since S1 Sherlock himself and some of his mirrors are presented as 'guardians'.
Alex Woodbridge - employed as security guard at the Hickman Gallery - the stargazer with the really big 'magnifier' who recognizes a fake painting (a facade?)
Sherlock himself is dressed as security guard in TGG and as a member of the Queen's Guard in TSOT
the word 'guardian' appears in the deduction cloud around Mary (Sherlock's major mirror) in TEH
of course Major Sholto ... guardian of the empire
Benedict describs Sherlock as 'guardian angel' (X)
Enough reason to look more closely at a character who works as security guard and wears also tattoos.
On prisoners and tattoos with secret meanings
Prior to this post I had not the slightest idea regarding the meaning of the following tattoos. Therefore I interpreted them exactly the way they are presented in this scene ... through camera and dialoge.
(Sherlock walks to the man’s side and looks down at him. Behind his left ear, which has an earpiece in it, is a small tattoo of the number “14”.) SHERLOCK: Ex-con.
(He zooms in on another tattoo on the man’s right hand between his thumb and index finger. The tattoo is five small dots, four of them in a square shape and the fifth in the middle of the square.) SHERLOCK: White supremacist, BY THE TATTOO, so who cares?
Then I began researching these tattoos (here & here) and that was the moment when I noticed something very strange.
Though both tattoos have a connection to crime and prisons, their individual meaning appears .... REVERSED through the special way they are presented ... and therefore INCORRECT.
For it is the number '14' which is used as a symbol for 'white supremacy' and not the 'FIVE DOTS'.
MORE ABOUT THE FIVE DOTS
The five dots tattoo has different meanings in different cultures and as far as I was able to discover it has nothing to do with 'white supremacy'.
a group of close friends,[3]
time spent in prison (with the outer four dots representing the prison walls and the inner dot representing the prisoner).[5]
standing alone in the world,[4]
a fertility symbol,[1]
a reminder of sayings on how to treat women or police,[2]
a recognition symbol among the Romani people,[2]
Side note: Thomas A. Edison had this pattern tattooed on his forearm as well - as noted on his life insurance policy. Why remains a mystery. But maybe it has to do with the fact that he invented the predecessor of the modern tattoo gun and did a bit of experimenting. :)
The Fourty Thieves and the 'five dots'
An American gang had formed in the early 1820s in New York using this name. In London newspapers began to describe a new 'youthful gang of depredators' in 1828 who called themselves also 'The Fourty Thieves'. Both gangs had most likely no connetctions with one another beyond the name. The London street gang became soon the 'terror of their neighbourhood'. The age of the members - boys and girls - did not exceed 18 and they recognised each other by five blue spots on the hand.
Towards the end of the century an incarnation of the Forty Thieves appeared that was exclusively female. It was led by Mary Carr, aka Mary Crane, who was known as the ‘Queen of the Forty Thieves’. She is said to be one of the most astute criminals of the time, assembling a gang of young women which specialised in robbery and blackmail. This female gang persisted through to the twentieth century, when the role of Queen was taken over by Alice Diamond, aka ‘Diamond Annie’, whose punch was said to rival that of any man.
Later, the name of this particular group was changed into THE FOURTY ELEPHANTS, a reference to the Elephant and Castle – the area in Lambeth where the group was based.
It seems likely there was only the vaguest of connections between the female gang of the twentieth century and the child gang of a century or so earlier. The ‘Forty Thieves’ was a name passed on across the years. And although references to the five dots as the badge of the gang evaporate after the 1840s, the tattoo itself has outlasted the name of the Forty Thieves as a mark of street villainy.
Here is a very interesting article about that gang and its history for anyone who wants to delve deeper into that topic.
Sherlock the prisoner
Several times Sherlock is literally shown as a man in a prison cell ... in a padded cell ... even shackled to a wall with iron chains and tortured, in a dungeon-like environment.
On other occasions the audience is told about Sherlock being impriosoned:
MYCROFT: A week in a prison cell. I should have realised .... that in your case, solitary confinement is locking you up with your worst enemy.
Some of Sherlock's mirrors are also represented as prisoners ... in cells, behind bars, tortured. Jim in THOB, TRF and HLV and Ajay in TST.
And most obvious ... Eurus .... the prisoner par excellance ... held captive in a high tech security facility of the superlative. ... behind elephant-glass.
Security guard - former prisoner - tattoos
What could be the purpose of a character who appears just for a few seconds, has no text and no impact on the plot, lies just unconscious on the floor .... and Sherlock uses not more than fourteen words to describe him:
ANOTHER IN HERE SECURITY EX CONVICT WHITE SUPREMACIST BY THE TATTOO SO WHO CARES
And yet .... this insignificant, meaningless character, who is clearly portrayed in a neagative manner .... is nonetheless heavily coded as a Sherlock mirror.
But then .... the creators of Sherlock BBC seem to have a tendency in hiding important information behind a few randomly thrown away words, behind silly or cruel jokes and behind surface-neagtivity. Whereas lies are often presented in lenghthy, comprehensive explanations, as extremly neat and clever plans, embellished with a lot of fanciful details.
But .... 'Only lies have details' Sherlock tells the audience. :)))
TATTOOS - STRIPPED OF THEIR MEANINGS - WHAT REMAINS ?
The nunmber 14: one & four ...... 1+4= 5
Five dots: 5
A mirror for Sherlock .... and on his skin is written the number '5' .... two times.
Might mean nothing - might mean something - I don't know. But this unconscious Ex-con really was a lovely surprise. :))))
I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.
September, 2017
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