Tony Arrington will ink anything on any part of the body, but he draws the line at gang tattoos.
The tattoo artist at Dragon's Den on Gordon Highway pointed to an FBI flier posted behind the desk as a reason why. The flier requests that any artist who believes a customer might be a gang member or terrorist contact the FBI immediately.
"It's not saying we can't do it," Arrington said.
Still, the artists at the tattoo parlor prefer to err on the side of caution.
"If anyone comes in with a group of three or more, we have to make sure that it isn't gang-related," he said.
It all boils down to reading people.
Large groups seeking identical tattoos is one warning sign. There is hardly a tattoo design that some group has not taken as its own, however.
Fellow artist Mike Hepler pointed out several designs that could be construed as gang-related.
The number 13, for instance, can be a symbol for the MS-13s, a gang originating in El Salvador that has become one of the largest in the United States. A red woodpecker can be a symbol for "peckerwood" gangs across the country. Five- and six-point stars and teardrops under the eye are common gang symbols.
The artists said they work to educate their customers on the possible meaning of the tattoos before ink ever hits skin.
"We try to let them know that if you go to jail or in a certain part of town that you might get your butt kicked," Arrington said.
Recently, the artists haven't had a lot of people ask for suspicious tattoos.
"That sting operation killed a lot of it," Hepler said.
For 16 months beginning in 2006, Richmond County investigators operated an undercover tattoo parlor on Tobacco Road, buying back guns and making friends with gangs.
Operation: Augusta Ink was the second-largest storefront weapon seizure in the history of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
More than 100 people were arrested on drug, theft and firearm charges, and many gang members were taken off the streets.
"We don't see as many as we used to see," Richmond County sheriff's Capt. Scott Peebles said of the gang tattoos. "We still see them, but they are trying to disguise their affiliations and not be as obvious."
Augusta gangs, which, Peebles said, are typically unorganized and don't have a consistent leader, are using less-permanent ways to show their allegiance.
Gang membership can be a passing fancy, Peebles said. Many of the local members are middle and high school age kids. Typically, after graduation there's a drop-off.
When suspects with suspicious tattoos do sit down in an interrogation room, however, the questioning will be tailored to include the permanent dye on their bodies, he said.
A stack of examples from previous suspects sits in Investigator Paul Godden's office.
Many of the tattoos are initials, such as GDB for Georgia Deadly Boys and TMB for Terrance Manor Boys, that the untrained eye wouldn't associate with membership in a gang.
The examples vary from professional in appearance to uneven, shoddy work that might have been done in an underground operation.
If the evidence is strong enough, a suspect's tattoos can be used against him in court.
"Normally in a gang-related trial, where you're focusing on the gang affiliation, we would introduce the tattoo as a range of gang-culture evidence," Godden said.
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