He had so many tattoos that he had tattoos on top of his tattoos. I couldn't help but think that something had to be terribly wrong in his life because he had been punishing himself with all those tattoos. This is a man who had spent most of his life looking at the world through bars. He had spent most of his life watching his back. He spent most of his life making sure never to show any emotion, because emotion is a sign of weakness in prison.
Weak inmates become dead inmates.
Weak inmates become a woman for some other inmate. Steve was very much alive, and no one's woman. But he was weeping. He couldn't help himself. This man looked so frightening, he could rob a bank without having to draw a gun.