Fellow jail inmate Jeremy Card has tattoos climbing both arms and covering his chest, back and stomach. His left arm is decorated with skulls and death but the right side represents life through beautiful faces.

"At first, it was just something to do," Card says. "They get addicting after a while."

But the skin art on his neck, he says quickly, "I wish I never did that. It's been hard to get jobs. They just think you're a thug right away. I'm just me."

The majority of Card's skin decoration came while he was in prison.

"I think it's pretty much unavoidable," said Utah State Prison Correctional Sgt. Kelly Worley. "They're going to do it. They look at it as a souvenir from prison."

Artwork of prison towers, spider webs and clown faces can mean a 30-day lockdown and a fine, but getting a gang-related tattoo can eliminate an inmate's parole date, Worley said.

However, the threats of punishment didn't stop Dave Wimmer.

A former prison tattoo artist, Wimmer created a "gun" from a Walkman motor, a sharpened paper clip and a Bic pen, with "ink" from melted checker pieces mixed with baby oil

"People (who) get tattoos in (prison) are the people that see someone else and say, 'I want one.' They think they're being cool," Wimmer said. "For me, the path I've chosen and what ... I've thought of life is what is all over me.

Wimmer's hulking frame is covered — 85 percent covered, he estimates — with dark, menacing tattoos. They speak volumes about the pain, drug use and violence he's seen on the streets.

"Everybody considered me as being a monster," said Wimmer, who spent seven years in prison. "I figured, 'Why don't I turn into that?"'

Skulls, comic book characters, a daughter's name, gang signs and even a Norse god adorn Wimmer's back, chest, shoulders, stomach, arms and legs. But even he draws a line.

"I've seen a lot of my friends (get their) faces tattooed," Wimmer said. "What are you going to do, limit yourselves to work in a Burger King for the rest of your life?"

A tattoo removal program could be good, Wimmer said, but if someone got a gang tattoo removed, then ended up in prison again, they could be seen, and treated as a traitor.

Besides, his tattoos are part of who he is, Wimmer said, and he has no plans to remove them.

"I need to be reminded," Wimmer said of the death-themed artwork lacing his body. "They say if you confront your demons and keep them out ... (you) can still work them, instead of bottling them away and ignoring the issue."

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