The Bloods gang, one of the most widespread criminal organizations in the United States, has been associated with a range of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, robbery, and homicide. However, one of the most recognizable aspects of the gang is their use of hand signs and other symbols to communicate with each other and assert their presence in public spaces. Whether you are interested in criminal justice, sociology, or simply curious about this aspect of American gang culture, this article will provide a comprehensive and informative overview of the Bloods gang’s use of signs and symbols.
So, what are the gang signs? it refers to hand and finger movements used by gang members to demonstrate their gang membership or disrespect for rival gangs. While they are the most common form of identification, other signals like tattoos, clothing, and graffiti are also used as gang signs.
What is the Bloods Gang
Blood gang is a African-American street gang established in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California and Bloods was mainly founded as a rival to the Crips gang. Bloods have estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 members. In the whole blood gang we can see there are a lot of sub gangs connected to blood gangs. We call these sub gangs as “Sets”. Blood gang is a collection of these sets. All sets have different gang signs. I listed some sub groups below.
- Piru Bloods
- West Side Piru
- Young Mafia
- Top Oak Piru
- Nine Trey Gangsters (9TRE, 9-3, NTG)
- Gangster Killer Blood (GKB)
- East Side Piru
- East Side Bloods
- etc…..
You can also learn about the meanings of various Crip gang signs.
Types of Blood Gang Signs
In blood gangs we can see mainly they use red as their gang color, but there are other colors that belong to sets. Every gang has different gang signs. These gang signs can be Hand Signs, Tattoos, Graffiti, colors and clothes. In this section we are going to discuss everything one by one clearly.
1. Bloods Hand Signs
Hand signs are the most famous gang signs nowadays because they’re always simple and unique. Some hand signs are used to represent their gang membership and some hand signs are used to disrespect other rival gangs. Most gang members are holding their gang name first letter as their gang sign like blood gang members holding fingers like “B” Letter. In blood gang signs we can see different hand signs including sets signs. Find out below blood gang signs images to get a better idea.
2. Bloods Tattoos
Gang Members use tattoos as a gang sign to show their gang membership. These tattoos are different from gang to gang. These tattoos are a bit like encrypted code, only the same gang member can decrypt and catch the meaning. In a blood gang we can see there are a lot of tattoos associated with them. These tattoos are sometimes used to disrespect their rival gangs, like crip gang.
- Blood members are inked “ 3 11 ” as a tattoo, number 3 represents “C” in alphabet, number 11 represents “K” in alphabet. So “CK” mean is a “Crip Killa”
- Some blood members are inked pit-bull dog
- Also, Some members inked their hand signs as a tattoo.
For more details look below images.
3. Bloods Graffiti
Graffiti is something like drawing, scratched or painted unlawfully on a wall and other public surface. These graffiti are used to claim territory, and where there are several gangs present, graffiti may be marked out by rival gangs and replaced with their own. In Bloods gangs we can see some graffiti different from other gangs. Bloods gang graffiti can often be seen in urban areas and are recognizable by their use of the color red and the word “Bloods” or the letter “B” in their tags. Sometimes Bloods crossed out Crips graffities. The graffities is usually found on walls, buildings, and other public spaces and can vary in size and complexity. Check out the image below for a better idea about Bloods Gangs graffiti.
4. Bloods colors and clothes
Gang members use some clothing like bandanas to represent their gang specially they focus on color before wearing these clothes. In Bloods gangs we can see they use Red and Black as the gang colors. They use Red and Black colors for everything like clothes, graffiti, and some use Red and Black color to ink their tattoos.
Mainly they wear Red and Black color bandanas to represent they are involved with Bloods and these bandanas are worn around their face, neck, head or put in half of their pocket. Also they use green, brown, pink, beige, and orange as well. To get a better idea about these Bloods colors and clothing check out below images.
Want to learn more about the meanings of gang signs? Visit our article on All about gang signs for a complete overview.