Tattoo artist Chino Ly found new path in Texas prison
WIELDING a sword as he stood over his bloodied victim, Chino Ly was about to complete his transformation from Melbourne thug to Texas prison gang member. But a DIY ink gun inside one of the US’s toughest jails set him on a new path. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST NOW
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CHINO Ly can still remember the moment his life changed forever. He was a gang member with a sword in his hands and a bloodied victim at his feet.
He swung that blade like a baseball bat.
“I cut him like a knife,’’ the Melbourne tattoo artist admits.
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“I felt the sword going straight through his shirt and cut him across the chest.
“I could feel it going in pretty hard and then he fell onto the ground and I stood over him and I kept swinging.
“I don’t know how in the hell he did it but he got up and started running.’’
Mr Ly had grown up in Melbourne as a garden-variety bully. But his mum had hoped a move to Texas where her family lived might changed all that.
It didn’t. Her son formed a gang — they called themselves the Infamous Asians and they roamed the streets of Arlington each night drinking and smoking pot.
But it wasn’t until the night of October 31, 2007 that Mr Ly’s life as a street thug would really escalate.
He had become embroiled in a violent disagreement over a girl.
“We just wanted to scare him,’’ Mr Ly said.
“But it spiralled out of control very quickly.
“My intentions was never to use the sword or cause him any harm.
“But once you take that first swing you just keep on going. That’s what happened in my mind. I didn’t want to get hurt. I didn’t want to give him that chance.’’
Police swooped and Mr Ly was arrested, charged and thrown in jail.
Visiting him in custody, homicide detectives had a blunt message: “If this guy dies,’’ they warned him, “it’s going to be on you.’’
The bloke he sliced across the chest would survive, but only just. Still a teenager, Mr Ly had to face the music. He was convicted for a string of organised crimes he’d been involved with, and the aggravated assault.
It was the beginning of a life-changing six-year stint inside one of the US’s toughest prison systems.
“That first night … I wouldn’t even know how to explain it man,’’ he said.
Mr Ly spent the first months of his sentence at transfer facilities first in Abilene then in Brownfield and was shuffled between another two prisons for his involvement in a race riot.
Any chance of him shaking off his gang connections was quickly erased.
He learned one of the best ways to survive on the inside was to align with a brotherhood.
After fending off two gang members in a brutal prison cell showdown, he earned a membership with “Tango Blast’’ — one of the largest and most ruthless prison gangs anywhere in America.
“I became a member of the biggest Texas prison gang there was,’’ Mr Ly said.
“They sold me this dream that we were there to take care of each other.
“But then you started to see more of the darker side and you realised people were just trying to use you.’’
He used pills to fight off depression and his fists to knuckle anybody he disagreed with.
But it was when he was at his lowest ebb that he discovered his greatest passion.
Using an ink gun made from internal wiring from any device he could get his hands on, he started tattooing himself, then others.
It was a crude and often dangerous method but it worked.
Other inmates would stand watch as he inked prisoners, but on occasions when he was caught, he paid for it.
He was restricted from certain privileges, once landing a 24-hour two-month spell in solitary confinement.
“It almost sent me crazy,’’ he said.
“I felt like I was going downhill fast and ended up on meds and had depression.’’
But he said the greatest lesson on the inside came from experienced inmates.
“I learnt from people who had more respect for themselves,’’ Mr Ly said.
“I gradually changed my mind to be more positive.
“I started to eat better and work out and I looked at the situation I was in.’’
He was granted parole in his fifth year after being knocked back by prison chiefs on consecutive occasions.
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On release, he was flown back to Australia under guard where he was handed to Federal Police who released him at the airport’s arrivals terminal just a few hours later.
He had two suitcases, a mobile without a SIM card, $500 cash and no idea where to go.
It was a fresh start bound by uncertainty.
“I was just standing there looking like an idiot wondering what I should do next.’’
He jumped on a flight to Brisbane to find his father who allowed him to stay for the first tentative months.
Mr Ly said he was still institutionalised. He would wait for people to open doors before walking through them and wore his thongs in the shower.
By the time he snapped out of it, a relative invited him to Melbourne where he made a string of contacts and landed a job at Prahran studio Full Moon Tattoo.
Mr Ly is a formidable looking bloke. But he says his torrid past is behind him.
Now he wants to make a difference in the lives of others, ensuring young Aussies don’t head down the same path.
“Gangs and crime are still an issue in Australia and here in Melbourne,’’ he said.
“I want to tell my story in schools and footy clubs and let these kids know that aligning with this sort of lifestyle isn’t the answer.’’
Mr Ly says prison humbled him. It made him a better person.
But he admits he and his family still have to live with the consequences of his actions.
“I was a real rebel against my family but what really turned it around was being inside and seeing my five-year-old sister wondering why I was in prison … that bought me down to my knees.
“That’s why I think that it was one of the best things that happened to me.
“People might see it as a negative but for me it was a positive for the future, for myself.’’
These days he lives by a motto once offered by his mum. He had it translated from Vietnamese and tattooed as a reminder.
It reads: You see better when you fall.
“It’s so true,’’ Mr Ly said.
When you fall down to the lowest point in your life … who’s going to be around you? Who’s going bail on you or betray you?
“I like that quote.’’
TEXAS PRISON GANGS
TANGO BLAST
A “Tango” refers to the town or region the members hail from.
Hispanic prisoners who didn’t want to join an existing gang formed the Four Horseman in 1998, a collective of Tangos from Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth.
There are now many Tangos in Texas, and the Texas Department of Public Safety recently declared Tango Blast its greatest gang threat. It estimates there are as many as 19,000 members in Texas inside and out of prisons.
Tango Blast doesn’t have rigid leadership or membership structures and is known to be involved in human smuggling and other illegal activities outside of the prison system.
Gang members aren’t “lifers” and can leave the group.
MS-13 (MARA SALVATRUCHA)
Considered one of the most powerful and violent gangs by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the group that was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants from El Salvador and Honduras has even infiltrated Australia’s shores this year.
Members often sport face tattoos and use devil horns images, and they are known to use hand signs such as a ‘devil’s head’ which represents an M upside down.
BARRIO AZTECA
Considered one of the most violent prison gangs in the US, based mainly in Texas and New Mexico.
It’s estimated 2000 members are generally of Mexican nationality or heritage.
Crimes include cross-border drug smuggling, transporting illegal workers, extortion, kidnapping and weapons offences.
MEXIKANEMI
The “Texas Mexican Mafia” as it is also known is thought to have around 2000 members, many of whom are Mexican nationals. Trafficking heroin, methamphetamines, cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine from Mexico across the border is their main play.
There are links between the gang, which formed in the 1980s, and Los Zetas, a feared Mexican military drug cartel. The group was involved in a war with the Texas Syndicate for several years, with as many as 100 deaths before a truce was declared in 1988.
HERMANOS DE PISTOLEROS LATINOS
Also known as HPL, this gang is present throughout Texan prisons and in parts of Mexico such as Nuevo Laredo.
Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos tattoo, US prison gangs, US department of Justice.
The group was created in the 1980s, its name meaning “brotherhood of Latin Gunmen” and
The gang is implicated in bringing drugs including cannabis into the US from Mexico and is considered to be very structured.
TEXAS SYNDICATE
Highly organised group spanning the US-Mexican border, with a membership of 1300-plus young men (under 40). Also aligned with Los Zetas, which is considered by the US authorities to be the most ruthless and sophisticated criminal syndicate in Mexico.
It is a well-established group founded in the 1970s but has seen a decline in recent years due to the rise of Tango Blast and other gangs.
ARYAN BROTHERHOOD OF TEXAS
Not to be confused with the Aryan Brotherhood gang, this deadly prison group shares similar white supremacist ideology and formed in the 1980s. They were refused affiliation with the Aryan Brotherhood so formed their own gang, a structured group with ‘generals’ who manage the gang’s criminal enterprises.
The gang was known for its wars against rival black prison gangs the Self-Defense Family and Mangindo Warriors, and are thought to have killed at least 100 people.
The group is said to have more than 2600 members — plus some outside of jails.
*Source: US department of justice, Southern Poverty Law Centre
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