The Mighty Mongrel Mob is New Zealand’s largest and most powerful street gang. They constitute a web of over thirty gang chapters nationally, with members dressed in distinguishable red flags, swastikas, prominent face tattoos and their signature MMM patch of a British Bulldog wearing a German Stahlhelm—specifically designed to piss people off.
The Mob was founded in the 1960s in Hawke’s Bay, running parallel to the notoriety, violence, and mischief of the North American infamous Hells Angels. In April 2013, there were 934 incarcerated members of the MMM—representing over a tenth of New Zealand prisoners.
Members typically join to fill a gap of family values that was left from childhood and adolescence. Together they form a strong brotherhood with firm values, even if they are a little more aggressive and reside on a foundation of organized crime, including drug trafficking and armed robbery.
DAZED presents Skin, a recent film by Tom Gould, which follows gang-member Martyka ‘Skin Dog’ Brandt as he chronicles his life from living at a mental institution at age 14, to running away to help found New Zealand’s most notorious and feared gangs. However, your opinion on Brandt begins to shift later in the film as he takes you through his experiences raising his children as a single father, and eventually becoming a champion race-car driver.
