michael's enhanced creative ability allowed him to design a tattoo with a hidden blueprint of fox river penitentiary that normal people couldn't discern. over the course of four months, michael had specific sections of the prison tattooed onto his upper body, hidden within gothic imagery. each part of his tattoo had to be precise, which provoked the tattooist's comment to mahone about michael being a "detail nazi" and that the tattoo was "some sort of inside joke" that only he got.