C-Murder was tatted up in 98.
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It wasn't common, tho. 99-2000 is when it really blew up (via Iverson and a couple other cats)
As far as not being a thug thing, you always had jailhouse tats. But it wasn't something you needed to be "certified".
wood harris told VLAD that when he saw 2pac's tats on the set of ABOVE THE RIM that it was shocking
people just didn't have tats like that back in 93-94