Sign into an existing account

It probably was exactly what it looks like: A functional way to keep track of prisoners in the chaos of war.

Tattoos have been used to keep track of prisoners and convicts, among other things, throughout recorded history and all over the world. In the US, Britain and Australia, it was common practice to tattoo convicts with their crime and date, to better track repeat offenders, all the way through the late 19th century.

This wasn't limited to prisoners, either. Many militaries used identifying or informational tattoos for their soldiers. British sailors in the 18th century used to have serial number tattoos, much like the concentration camp ones. Nazi SS members had their blood group tattooed under their arm.

Functional tattoos like this only seem weird today, due to the advent of fingerprints databases, DNA tests, universal global ID documents, medical and dental records, etc... these replaced the need for identifying tattoos. Both prisoners and military members carried on the tradition though, tattooing themselves to tell their own story, or just for vanity.

Does anyone know how the numbers were allocated? I suppose there had to be some way to sync the entire system, unless the numbers were local to every camp. Were they?

Hipsters and their tattoos!!

Easiest way to keep track of shape shifters is to give them something they can't take off. They were still political prisoners, and enemies of the state.

so they couldn't shapeshift like owen benjewin does.