What is the Pachuco mark?
It is a cross-like tattoo (made with dots rather than lines), which during the 1970s used to be very common
over the anatomic snuffbox of intravenous drug abusers (the snuffbox is the hollow space on the radial aspect of the wrist that can be seen when the thumb is fully extended). There it provided a sort of identification card for the drug-dealing world, easily visible upon handshaking. “Pachuco” is actually a Spanish- American term, possibly an alteration of payuco (yokel, rustic). The expression has been variously used to identify a Mexican-American youth or teenager, especially one who dresses in flamboyant clothes and belongs to a neighborhood gang.
It is a cross-like tattoo (made with dots rather than lines), which during the 1970s used to be very common
over the anatomic snuffbox of intravenous drug abusers (the snuffbox is the hollow space on the radial aspect of the wrist that can be seen when the thumb is fully extended). There it provided a sort of identification card for the drug-dealing world, easily visible upon handshaking. “Pachuco” is actually a Spanish- American term, possibly an alteration of payuco (yokel, rustic). The expression has been variously used to identify a Mexican-American youth or teenager, especially one who dresses in flamboyant clothes and belongs to a neighborhood gang.