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Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

So you've been binge-watching the last two seasons of Breaking Bad and are too tired to read Shmoop's brilliant character analyses of Dick and Perry. Here's a handy shortcut: check out the tats.

Dick's body art is pretty crude, like Dick himself.

More designs, self-designed and self-executed, ornamented his arms and torso: the head of a dragon with a human skull between its open jaws; bosomy nudes; a gremlin brandishing a pitchfork […]. (1.100)

Perry also has tattoos, but they're more elaborate and artistic—professionally done. They aren't any less sinister, though:

Blue-furred, orange-eyed, red-fanged, a tiger snarled upon his left biceps; a spitting snake, coiled around a dagger, slithered down his arm; and elsewhere, skulls gleamed, a tombstone loomed, a chrysanthemum flourished. (1.102)

Could this be a parallel to their world of crime, where Dick is a wannabe murderer while Perry is, to his own surprise, the real article? You could consider Dick's tattoos as symbolic of a feeble attempt to be evil; Perry's tattoos show their wearer as being capable of real evil.