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N64 Rumble Pak Used To Tattoo Prisoners

kotaku.com — US Correctional Officers hated the N64. Why? Seems prisoners used to cannibalize the rumble paks and make tattoo guns out of them. DIY FTW.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 28, 2007

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  • fant0m, on 10/10/2007, -0/+131"In other news, multiple prisons have released inmates with Star Fox tattoos on their arms, chest, neck, and back..."

    and

    "According to Jack Thompson, this said 'rumble pack' is what got the prisoners in jail in the first place."
  • MCMookie, on 10/10/2007, -2/+113I dare someone to call THESE guys fanboys.
  • Kratisto, on 10/10/2007, -1/+76So that's why that thug had "DO A BARREL ROLL" tattooed on his back.
  • thugbear2005, on 10/10/2007, -0/+50really any swastika means don't hire that guy
  • sonik3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+49So, you'd hire someone with a professionally done swastika on his neck?
  • dondara, on 10/10/2007, -2/+49They don't want convicts to get tatts anymore? I would think they would want criminals to mark themselves as much as possible. I see some guy with a swastika poorly inked on his neck, I'm thinking convict, don't hire him.
  • CDoug03, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24i had a friend in high school make a tattoo gun out of a guitar string, a click pencil, and a motor from an electric pencil sharpener. Needless to say, everyone who got a tattoo from his gun failed at life. F+
  • Muyoso, on 10/10/2007, -6/+28How about, WHY THE ***** do prisoners have Nintendos when they are serving their time????????????
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20i would never get ink done by someone using a "tattoo gun." professional tattoo artists use tattoo machines, not some home-mode hepatitis spreader.
  • drlha, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20If they hated the rumble packs so much then why not just remove them? Rumble packs on N64 were an optional extra after all, and not required.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19it gives them something healthier to do than shanking each other.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17Were they all booked for speeding and throwing red shells at innocent drivers?
  • neFariou5, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15How are they meant to save their progress in the sentence, if they using the slot for a rumble pack?
  • TheGreatTK, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12The whole idea of prison is to keep troublemakers off the streets. I'd rather they weren't totally loco by the time they get released, so if that means they get to sit down and play some halo, i'm all for it. The mind goes insane quicky if it has nothing to do.
  • nullmind, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Or spend hours thinking about how much they will work you bitches over when they get out.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10You think the intellectual giants in the correctional facilities had any idea of that??
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10a lot of prisons camps have used tattoos to mark inmates for life. however, i don't think we should be modeling our corrections system after any of them. if someone has served their time and deemed fit to re-integrate into society, they should be allowed to do so and not be permanently penalized for their past mistakes.
  • Sumptin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Prisoners have been making tattoo guns from any device with an electrical motor for years. Most commonly a cassette tape player.

    And while I'm not advocating nor demoting the idea of prisons with entertainment devices, if you think that sitting in prison playing an XBox is "fun" then you probably have a great misconception on what prison life is like.
  • VeganG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Whatever distracts them enough to keep them from killing each other.
  • meatmcguffin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I think he was making a reference to Sony copying Nintendo
  • mike_p, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8People like you ruin Digg.
  • weebit, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8If you put aside the fact they are in prison, you would have to say coming up with the idea was kind of ingenious. Unfortunately many of them in prison don't use their good talents to their advantage. A life of crime is all they know.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9dont drop the controller
  • mike81890, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7yeah i mean if your in prison for life I would HATE to have to play the first stage in Donkey Kong 64 over and over again
  • TGun, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7If the game used a rumble pack, most of the time the saves were allotted to the game cartridge.
  • skyfyre, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7The prison "bitches" would get Slippy frog tattooed on their arms. "Fox, get this guy OFF ME!"
  • AnotherBrian, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6We're not talking about forcibly barcoding prisoners. They want to get the tattoos, it's the prisons that are trying to prevent it. I don't know why, there is nothing wrong with tattoos. If the inmates are creative enough to make a tattoo gun out of whatever they are given, I think they deserve it.
  • SoulRebel23, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7You gotta remember that a lot of these people are in jail for smoking pot or some other minor crime that you wouldn't typically think of when you think of a criminal. Forcing people to sit in an empty room with no entertainment is basically just going to make them go crazy.
  • skyshock1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5*shrug*

    Better they sit around and get lazy than hit the gym 4 hours a day in preparation for their next crime spree when they get out? I dunno II'm just grasping for straws here.
  • LogitechG15, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You know not everyone in prison has committed horrible blood thirsty crimes right? Some people just were pressured or did not think right. Sure it does not justify what they did, but they should not have to face some of the punishments that a rapist does.
  • zeromancer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4this is digg. we can't send PMs. nice thought though.
  • Takfam, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4While ordinarily I would agree with you, prison is NOT about making prisoners productive and its not about making them pay for their crimes. Its about turning them into another hamster to run on a wheel in the rat race. Its about keeping them complacent so that they won't step out of line again once they get out. Rarely does this system succeed, and it drastically needs change, but for now its at least partially functional. So if a game console lets a prisoner vent his frustrations at captivity and makes him less likely to kill, rape, or steal when he gets out, I say let them have their games.
  • denkc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I think a lot of it has to do with being really bored. I imagine if you had all day to screw around with a room full of things you'd come up with something ingenious too.
  • UNL1M1T3D, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Yeah know they can shank each other virtually.
  • razrielle, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3you gotta be ***** kidding me man
  • aznedy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Pic or it Didn't Happen.
  • AnotherBrian, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3What are you, stupid? You don't have to be gay or a women to enjoy a little buzz.

    By your's and eenu's logic, lesbians wouldn't like vibrators.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2it's not about punishment, or at least it shouldn't be. prisons are supposed to be _corrections_ facilities--they ought to rehabilitate inmates. punishing them does nothing for society except encourage vengefulness and make people more sadistic. as long as they're behind bars, preventing them from harming society until they are rehabilitated, what does it matter if they get to play video games?

    also, anyone can get a cheap or free tattoo period--this is nothing new. all it takes is an electric motor, a guitar string, and an idiot dumb enough to get tattooed using a "tattoo gun." scratchers don't use safe sterilization techniques and go around scarring people for life because they don't know what they're doing as they've never been trained through an apprenticeship.

    professional tattoo artists use "tattoo machines" and put their needles through an autoclave before they use them on people. they also wear surgical gloves when they work, have been trained in proper aftercare, and take great precautions to prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses and diseases like hepatitis, HIV, herpes, staph, etc. you pay a lot of money for tattoos because it is something that you want to be done by a professional and done right. if you're too cheap to get a professional tattoo done by a good artist then you get what you pay for.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2as long society is protected from these people what do you care? and they're not being provided these items for free. usually they have to have outsiders buy things for them., and they have to be bought from specific specialized distributors, and what prisoners are allowed to own is strictly regulated. so what's wrong with them killing time with some video games? how does that effect you in any way whatsoever?

    keeping someone locked up indefinitely with nothing to pass time is just cruel. it's not good for the mental health of the inmates and would make the prison population harder to govern. and if you get some kind of sick enjoyment out of others' suffering then there's something seriously wrong with you. sadistic sociopaths like you deserve to be in prison more than a lot of people who are actually locked up for non-violent or victim-less crimes.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Last time I checked you could make a tattoo gun out of a lot of things, its not like nintendo just gained some exclusiveness to the idea
  • Woknblues, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1i don't understand why the correctional guards "hated" this. i just can't wrap my mind around "hating" a tattoo gun, homemade or otherwise. weird take on the "hate" thing. Anyways, resourcefulness equals intelligence. I hope whomever figured that out got out of prison and is doing something good with his life.
  • DogGunn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's pretty funny.

    How do they actually get the N64 rumble pack anyway?
  • aashishsahrawat, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1More tattoos with categories based are available at:
    http://www.atledo.com
  • Mitsanaga, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1OK... what you everyone who thinks prisoners shouldn't be given video games need to know, is that they aren't just given to them. they buy the stuff using the money they earn from making license plates and other extremely low paying jobs. if they can afford to buy the damn thing after a year or so, or how ever long... all the power to them. like that one guy said, you can go pretty crazy, pretty quickly when you have only walls and bars to stare at. and besides, after a while, the inmates are gonna want new games because they will be bored with their old ones. and in the same process as getting his/her game system, the prisoner is helping out the economy. besides, its probably only the people who aren't dangerous to their inmates that get to buy stuff like this... in other words, its probably a good behavior thing, because if they are being good, why not reward them somehow, because you cant always just let them out for being good.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1no, lesbians aren't gay guys:

    "Maybe he's gay?" "Why someone called "Steven" would think about making a vibrator is beyond me."
    --clearly you both knew he wasn't a girl.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1no, it's not a nice thought. providing instructions on how to make a "tattoo gun" or encouraging people to give their friends tattoos with a makeshift tattoo gun is irresponsible and potentially dangerous. real tattoo artists go through training and apprenticeships and spend the money on actual tattooing equipment. tattoo artists use specialized needles, sterilization equipment, and tattoo _machines_ not tattoo guns.

    unless you're in prison, and even then it's not smart, there's no reason to be getting a tattoo by a scratch artist with a guitar string and make-shift motor. people without the proper training usually end up scarring others and those who let themselves be "tattooed" by a scratch artist often end up regretting it, especially if they end up with a blood-borne disease like hepatitis, staph, or HIV.

    i don't know why people think they're cool cuz they know how to make a tattoo gun or know someone who does. it's ***** stupid and any professional tattoo artist will tell you how incredibly dangerous it is and how much the tattooing community despises scratch artists. if you don't have access to an autoclave you should not be doing tattoos on anyone.
  • flipcheck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's pretty healthy, I say.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1btw, just to clarify: i have a few tattoos myself, so i definitely have nothing against having a little ink. and i hate when people associate tattoos with criminals. i've even been cuffed and put in the back of a squad car myself while a cop searched my vehicle simple for making an erratic last-minute left.

    i was polite when he pulled me over and cooperated with him fully, yet he still got both me and my buddy out of the car, cuffed us, searched us, and then threw us in the back of his squad car to search my vehicle for weapons or drugs. we were detained for about 20 minutes because he claimed i looked like a gangbanger because i have a few tattoos and piercings (to this day i have yet to meet a banger with a lip piercing). i didn't even recognize the names of any of the gangs he asked me if i was a part of--the entire thing was totally ridiculous.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1yea, i know. i just mean not penalizing people for life when they can be rehabilitated. i was more commenting against the attitude of wanting prisoners to be visibly marked for the rest of their lives, albeit done voluntarily by the convicts themselves, which is still similar in mentality to those societies which implement tattooing prisoners or criminals.
  • smackhero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1clearly you don't need to be a girl or gay to know what a vibrator _is_. thinking that it could make a vibrator and wanting to use a vibrator on yourself are not the same thing. it's something that vibrates to begin with--that's clearly an obvious connection there. and i know plenty of straight guys who've bought vibrators and other toys for their girlfriends.

    also, gay guys typically don't use _vaginal_ vibrators. they don't have a *****, so it just doesn't work the same way for a guy. gay guys and hetero guys would most-likely use the same type of toys. some might use the ring vibrators that you wear on your ***** or ones you stick in your ass (if you're into that kind of stuff).

    no, i'm not a sexual deviant or perv, i just used to date a girl who works at the local porn shop/love boutique.
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