Tattoo machines found
in prison shakedown
Tattoos are popular lately, and accessible -- even in state prisons.
Prison officials confiscated 15 homemade tattoo machines in a two-day shakedown of Halawa Medium Security Correctional Facility, Warden Clayton Frank said yesterday.
Frank displayed other items confiscated this week, including pipes fashioned from ink pens; radio headphones; lighters; knives made by attaching a razor blade to the tip of a pen cover; dice made of scraps of wood and compressed wads of paper, clubs made of rolled-up magazines; a syringe hidden in a tube of toothpaste; and a cache of slippers and slipper spare parts officials believe were used as a prison trade.
"It's like a game: You're in here looking at ways of how to beat the system," Frank said.
Tattoos are used for gang identification and a source of contraband income for the tattoo artists, said Sgt. Lee Fields, Halawa gang intelligence officer. They also pose a health risk.
The heart of the machines are small electric motors salvaged from computer fans or other small appliances. A cam attached to the shaft moves a needle back and forth through the front half of a hollowed-out ink pen. The needle is the core of an electric wire. Batteries power the motor.
The ash left from burnt hair-styling gel is used as ink. Shavings from art pencils provide other colors.
Prison officials also confiscated and threw away 50 trash bags of cups, magazines, books, papers and cigarettes that are not permitted in the housing areas.
"The main thing when you conduct a shakedown is to get all of these items which shouldn't be in their possession away from them," Frank said.
However, inmates who were in possession of the more dangerous contraband face disciplinary action, which could include a period of solitary confinement.
Prison officials also turned over three inmates to the state attorney general to face criminal prosecution. Two of the inmates possessed drugs, while the other one had a steel shank hidden in a walking cane, Frank said.