Can covering up gang tattoos help to reduce jail clashes in Philippines?

Fighting between rival clans are common in the country’s overcrowded prisons, where belonging to a gang can be a lifeline to protection

Authorities hope that a programme to deface gang tattoos will stop inmates from being dragged into cell block wars

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Inmates at the New Bilibid Prison wait for their turn to have their tattoo removed in Manila. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:54pm, 3 Dec 2020Updated: 9:28pm, 3 Dec 2020

Heavily tattooed Philippine prisoners wince in pain as fellow inmates use improvised tattooing machines to cover up gang symbols – an effort to reduce jail violence that sceptics say is only skin-deep.

Deadly clashes between rival clans are common in the country’s notoriously overcrowded and under-resourced jails, where belonging to a gang can be a lifeline to food, medicine and protection.

Conditions inside prisons have worsened under President Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-narcotics crackdown has sent thousands of people to jails already several times over their capacity.

Prisoners who join a gang get inked inside their congested cells, leaving them with a distinctive design signalling their solidarity.

An artist removes a tattoo of an inmate at the New Bilibid Prison in Manila. Photo: AFP

Authorities hope that defacing these markings will stop inmates from being dragged into cell block wars and strip them of loyalty to a particular group, making it harder for leaders to mobilise their network of followers to riot or trade in drugs.