The economic reason full-body tats keep Central American gang members in check
Being inked from head to toe also makes it more difficult for people in gangs to jump ship.
Gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha have spread their influence all over the Western Hemisphere, and one of the clearest signs that you're dealing with their members is the garish tattoos that often adorn their bodies.
The designs of those tattoos can often vary, specified by individuals and their gangs, but there's an underlying reason that people get them, and it makes perfect business sense.
"There's a weird economic reason for these tattoos: It makes these employees much easier for the cartel or the gang to keep hold of," says Tom Wainwright, author of "Narconomics" and former Economist reporter in Mexico City.
"If you picture one of these gangs in El Salvador, where many of the members have tattoos, literally from head to toe, it's much much harder for those employees to go and find a job somewhere else," Wainwright added.
The Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is most closely associated with the head-to-toe tattoos.
Prisons in El Salvador and Honduras, where MS-13 is based, are full of current and former gang members coated with ink identifying their loyalties, whether to MS-13 or another Central American gang like Barrio 18, which is regarded as one of MS-13's main rivals.