TAT CAN’T BE GOOD!

A CRIPS gang member was so proud of ripping off the Bank of America in a check fraud scheme that he tattooed the financial institution’s logo on his arm.

Federal prosecutors attached a color photograph of Gabriel Patterson’s bare chest to sentencing papers depicting his “commitment to crime as a way of life.”

“The defendant’s commitment to bank fraud is extreme,” said Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz.

The prosecutor added: “Indeed, he has even tattooed the logo of Bank of America — one of his victims — on the inside of his left elbow reflecting the pride he takes in his crimes.”

Patterson is a member of the Eight Trey Crips, the same crew that was allegedly involved in the shootout at the September 2015 J’ouvert celebration in Brooklyn that claimed the life of Carey Gabay, who was an aide to Gov. Cuomo, according to court papers.

Lifshitz noted that bank fraud, along with drug trafficking, are among the primary ways street gangs make money.

The bank logo — four red and two blue bars — are the only tats in color on Patterson’s ink-covered chest.

The other tattoos include two angels, a cross and the words “Without struggle there is no progress so for now struggle continues.”

Patterson, 21, pleaded guilty to copying the account and routing numbers off checks. He drafted bogus checks with the stolen numbers, deposited the checks, then withdrew cash against the fraudulent balance.

Patterson, the son of a retired NYPD detective, learned the illicit craft from other Crips members, according to court papers.

Defense lawyer Mitchell Golub dismissed the government’s interpretation of the Bank of America tattoo.

“It is what it is,” Golub told the Daily News on Tuesday. “The government is just saying what they assume it means. He (Patterson) was just an immature kid — I don’t think any great thinking went into it.”

Patterson wrote a letter to Federal Judge William Kuntz apologizing to the “unnamed victims of my crimes.”

“Being incarcerated in a 5-square-foot cell definitely shows me that I don’t want this for my future,” he wrote.

If Kuntz put much thought into the tattoo factoring into a sentence, he didn’t say.

Patterson was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison, which was on the high end of the recommended guidelines.

Patterson is one of 23 reputed Crips gang members named in a federal racketeering indictment.