While tats in prison are cheaper, most likely, that tats outside prisons. The top artists do charge a serious amount of money for the art. Avoiding CO’s or doing your tat work during times when CO’s who don’t care are on duty is a big part of the game because tat guns are serious contraband and garner new charges.

I have seen violent incidents because of prison tats several times (most usually because of racist tats or failure to pay).

Piper the Gangster

My number one rule of survival in prison was NEVER to try to represent myself as something I couldn't back up.

If you represent yourself as a gangster, someone is going to test you and expect a gangster response.

Piper may think she is a gangster, and she might do some awful and heartless things that might be “akin” to doing gangster things, but she is no gangster (the only fight she has had in her life was with Doggett at the end of S1).

If Litchfield were real, I would warn Piper to back way off of all the foolishness.

In fairness, Piper put herself in a terrible position, if she had let people see her as weak, they would have all robbed her blind but that is just another reason why she should never have gotten into any of this foolishness in the first place.

It is one thing to plant a bunch of stuff in an inmate's house but not everyone is going to give you the chance to take a shot at them. Usually, extortion is much more direct and violence is applied to ensure compliance.

I was very lucky, I saw violence all-around me at least every week but was never in a confrontation. Part of that is because I kept to myself, followed all the common rules, was respectful and pleasant to everyone, and never caused any problems. When I was tested I always stood up for myself and never backed down, but luckily none of that ever spilled over into real violence.

If you are unlucky enough to go to prison, I would strongly suggest watching much more than talking for your first week at any facility. Find out what the unwritten rules of everything from bathroom etiquette to etiquette in the chow hall. Learn your cube rules and pay attention to what the other people in your cube tell you.

One of the most important relationships you will have in prison is the one with your bunkie and it is also really important to get along with the other people in your cube (if you have a cube instead of a cell).

It is considered very bad form to enter another cube than your own without invitation (and it can also get you written up) and most people would consider it disrespectful to let someone else randomly commit violence, plant contraband, or physically threaten someone else inside their cell (unless they REALLY don’t like you).

Piper totally put herself between a rock and a hard place by running a successful business that everybody knows about. In fact, in most blocks, to run a business that impacts that many people you might have to get permission (and pay a percentage) to whoever runs your block (in every prison, there is someone (or someone's) running illicit activities.

Anyway, my larger point is that Piper Chapman would be seriously tested if she were trying to run a truly lucrative business like her panty business and the consequences of that testing would likely be horrific.

Plus, why are we supposed to still feel okay about Piper after she saves her own prison cred by sacrificing someone who was about to be released to a “new bit” (prison talk for being found guilty of new crimes)?

Yes, it sucks that Stella stole from Piper, and Piper would be in all kinds of trouble if she had not responded, but it still doesn’t say great things about the new Piper.

The Fence

There is NO chance in hell that, even in a privatized prison, anyone could remove a part of the fence around the facility without security personnel present. Contractors do not walk into prisons and just start making repairs outside of protocol.

Technically, it isn’t even possible to get on the grounds of a prison without being let in (the truck would have had to be previously identified and would have been searched). Prisons are OBSESSIVE about the perimeter. Guards do perimeter checks regularly and repairs can ONLY happen with security personnel present (sadly, this just proves they are running out of ideas that don’t require an almost surreal amount of suspension of disbelief.

At the same time, after three seasons, it is fun to see all the ladies finally get to have a few minutes of release. I love them being able to take a swim but I have to at least mention that it could never happen (at least not like that).