Tattoo designs among drug abusers.

Forty-one males with drug abuse who had tattoos with designs related to drug use were selected from a larger sample of tattooed males in forensic psychiatric wards, prisons and military recruitment centers during the period 1986-2000 in the former Soviet Union. Two-thirds of the tattoo images were related to a specific drug, some served to hide signs of repeated drug use, others to identify ideal sites for injection. Knowledge of these details may be helpful to clinicians, although images may be influenced by current trends.