What is the meaning of a teardrop tattoo?

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

I was served by a really nice man in a shop today - couldn't help noticing he had a teardrop tattoo.

Does it have a particular meaning, as far as anyone knows?

No reason for asking except idle curiosity!

I thought it traditionally meant you had killed someone….but I may have made this up

In the 90s the people at my school said it meant you’d killed someone! I don’t know if it was ever true but I doubt it still is, given how popular tattoos now are.

I also thought that it meant you had killed someone

According to Ricky Baker it is if you have murdered someone

Killed someone. But anyone can rock up these days and ask for one, so probably just an Edgelord.

I thought it meant you had lost someone close to you, but Wikipedia gives various suggestions.

Under their right eye, is a typical gang sign for having killed someone.

Unfortunately many posers now also get the tattoo so it’s hardly a clear indicator of anything other than poor taste in tattoo placement.

Although I’m wondering why you couldn’t just Google this

oh i thought you had been to prison

I always thought it was a prison tattoo as well.

Yeah I thought murder too, but then wondered if that was just an internet myth - hence not just googling.

It was under his left eye.

I thought it was supposed to mean that a gang member had died.

This is what I thought. I only see it on older men round here.

I was told a few years back it meant you had killed someone

In all honesty it's probably just for aesthetic reasons, maybe he likes making people nervous for a laugh lol

Killed someone or a stretch at Her Majesty’s Pleasure

Very old fashioned type of tattoo - was it in a hipster type area?

It can mean all of the above. I visited the museum at Dartmoor where they had a display and explanation of prison tattoos and they claimed that a single teardrop tattoo represented someone's first stint on prison.