Vega's minimal, faded snake tattoo is a defining feature of Street Fighter's androgynous Spanish villain. While snakes don't have particularly fond associations for us here in the western world (poisoning, strangling and so on), in Japan they're associated with the infamous Yakuza criminal organisation. This was designer Akira Yasuda's way of asserting Vega's role as a villain in the series. The tattoo speaks of elegance and lethality, and is - along with the claw and mask - a defining feature of Vega's appearance. The purple colour of the tat also hints at Vega's flamboyance and noble upbringing - during which he studied bullfighting and ninjutsu, and combined them to turn him into the all-dancing, all-wooing killing machine he is today.