as in other correctional facilities, tattooing is not allowed at the bexar county jail in san antonio. violators could get up to 60 days in segregation or even face additional criminal charges. but the demand for tattoos on the inside is so great there are always inmate tattoo artists willing to take the risk for a payout of commissary goods or other forms of compensation. they make ingenious tattoo guns by assembling the parts of other items they are permitted to possess. and staff are constantly on the lookout for them. i was patting him down, down in his crotch area, and i felt the you know, the bulge, not a usual bulge. asked him what it is and he just pulled it out. opened it up, tattoo.
a catch like this is pretty rare. was a good catch, man. right here is from inside of a light, a staple. this right here is the same copper wire that came from the inside of the hair clippers and two checkers pieces to hold it together. these guys know what they re doing. another inmate marcelo cardenas is not a tattoo artist but has gained a reputation for crafting high-quality jailhouse tattoo guns. i rent the gun or i sell it, it goes for $30, $25 or $30 in this county right here. because he is due to leave the jail any day now to start his six-year prison sentence for assault, cardenas agreed to demonstrate how it s done. right now it s not like i really care about it. if they run me out, i m going to leave before they do punishment or the reprimand on me. cardenas starts with some wire scavenged from some electric hair clippers. we rub the wire like this here.
he winds the wire around the screw to make a crude electromagnet but he also needs a metallic magnet which is pilfered from a phone or speaker. the magnet, when you put it on top of the screw, it bounces with the cycles of the electricity. you bounce like this. the needle is made from a staple attached to a q-tip shaft. and then you use soft string to tie it up. that s pretty much how you do it. the magnet when it bounce, it push the needle. i don t invent it but i learn it. several other bexar county inmates also make their own tattoo guns or rigs, and the source of their knowledge could very well spring from just one man, jose hidalgo. early on in his incarceration he was teaching the other inmates how to create these tattoo rigs, how to do the tattoos, and as a result they were destroying county property. once we re in the cell 23 hours a day, we get creative in breaking lights to get the wire.
find and they will put all of their contraband in there. hiding anything in jail where every area is subject to inspection at any time takes determination and creativity. just ask marcelo cardenas. this is one of the spots that we use for to hide the guns, the tattoo guns. i m just right now making one. cardenas, who is sharing his secrets because he is soon leaving for state prison and says he is not worried about punishment, has a clever technique for hiding his homemade tattoo guns. the process begins with another piece of contraband. a box hinge. this is my tool that we use to break the wall in by literally scratching it. in this case, since the hole is still small, cardenas demonstrates how he uses a bar of soap to conceal one of the
ain t going to stop nobody. for a couple hours. yeah, but not for life. they re going to do it again. and keep doing it. just passing time. coming up this is one of the sparks that we use to add to the tattoo guns. the ingenious techniques inmates use to conceal the tattoo paraphernalia. that s how we do it. and? she ll roll it up into a ball and throw it underneath, which actually rolls into the other cell. erica haywood s disturbing behavior and the impact it has on her neighbors. went right under my bed. oh, man.