As a pale person who works in West Philadelphia I see many tattoos and have seen several teardrop tattoos on a daily basis and get frightened by them from my limited knowledge of them so I wonder what they mean. According to Wikipedia and various other sources the tattoo is originally from the Chicano (Mexican) gangs in California dating back to the 1940's. The original meaning of the tattoo was that the tatted person had killed someone. Modern interpretations of the tattoo range from that person having killed someone especially to show fellow prisoners of their murderous status or that the person had lost a loved one.
Types of Teardrop Tattoos:
1. Open Teardrop - This tattoo is the unfilled version and originally meant the wearer had killed someone
2. Closed Teardrop - This is the filled in version and originally meant that the person had lost a loved one
3. Half-filled Teardrop - This is obviously half filled in and apparently means that the wearer has had a loved one killed and has also murdered that loved ones assailant.
4. The White Person Teardrop - there is also a trend of white people getting teardrop tattoos on their fingers that are in memory of a loved one or just there as an ironic tattoo. Oh hipsters!
Basically teardrop tattoos are scary and not classy and if you see a half-filled teardrop RUN!
Sources:
Wikipedia
Gangs Or Us
Urbandictionary
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