In the opening credits of "Sons of Anarchy," each actor's name is formed from a tattoo. Katey Sagal, who portrays Jax's villainous mother Gemma, sports a crow tattoo, and there are several meanings behind this. The first is straightforward – she was married to John "JT" Teller (Victor Newmark) and Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), two leaders of SAMCRO, which is oftentimes spelled as Sam Crow. Additionally, the club refers to its groupies and hookups as Crow Eaters, which Gemma possibly was prior to marrying JT.
There's also a darker symbolism to Gemma's tattoo. It hints that this character will either cause death or experience it herself, and both prove true. Not only did Gemma have a hand in the demise of JT, she brutally ends the life of Jax's wife Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff). When Jax learns the truth about what happened to Tara, he kills Gemma.
A final, literal connection between Gemma and the tattoo is that she keeps crows as pets. Despite having light-colored birds early in the series, by the end, she has an affinity for the darker creatures. A user on Reddit said, "I thought that was a metaphor for things getting darker in her life and in the club." In Season 7, Episode 8 ("The Separation of Crows"), Gemma finds her beloved birds dead in her bed. "It's not only foreshadowing what's to become of her, but also the seemingly brutal way they passed is what did and will become of her favorite humans," said u/ybbakrad.
