Russian prison tattoos and meanings

This is one of the most widespread tattoo designs that is easily recognizable in the Russian criminal underworld. Only a convict who has served his time can get a church or a kremlin tattooed on his body.

Between and , during his career as a prison guard, Danzig Baldaev made over 3, drawings of tattoos. They were his gateway into a secret world in which he acted as ethnographer, recording the rituals of a closed society. The icons and tribal languages he documented are artful, distasteful, sexually explicit and provocative, reflecting as they do the lives, status and traditions of the convicts that wore them. Baldaev made comprehensive notes about each tattoo, which he then carefully reproduced in his tiny St. Petersburg flat. Caricature of the Communist Party.

Russian prison tattoos and meanings

In the era of the Soviet party, Russian prisons were controlled by a gang known as the Thieves in Law. This gang enforced strict guidelines, including what and where prisoners could tattoo on their bodies. Tattoos had to be earned through physical acts or other ways of standing up to authority, whether it was inside or outside of the prison. If the tattoos were undeserved, they would be forcibly removed from the person before they were further punished with beatings or worse. These days, the tattoo guidelines of the Thieves in Law are no longer followed and inmates are creating their own images with varied meaning. When worn on the knees, the stars are a sign of a prisoner who commands respect. Stars on the chest mark a higher rank. The tattoos must be earned, and an inmate wearing an undeserved tattoo risks a beating or worse. In the s, prisoners believed placing tattooed portraits of Lenin and Stalin on their chests would protect them from a firing squad. The authorities would not shoot at any images of their leaders; instead, they would shoot prisoners in the back of the head. An epaulette, or ornamental shoulder piece typically found on a military uniform, are used to signify rank within the Thieves In Law. Known ranks were captains, lieutenants and colonels. The spider crawling on the right shoulder is indicative of a thief. If the spider is crawling up the shoulder, the thief is still active. If the spider is crawling down, this means the thief is done with the criminal life.

Dynamo fan [Football Club] Shoulder. And the years go by, and my temples have gone grey, and my youth has been damaged.

Beetle, spider, fly on a background of the prison bars or entangled in the web of the network — indicates that most of his life was spent in prisons. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. He has been repeatedly punished for violating the rules of the penal colony and is committed to a life of crime. And the years go by, and my temples have gone grey, and my youth has been damaged. Cards, a knife a woman, a gun, prison bars, a skull and money. The woman in Nazi uniform means the bearer is antagonistic towards the police.

In the era of the Soviet party, Russian prisons were controlled by a gang known as the Thieves in Law. This gang enforced strict guidelines, including what and where prisoners could tattoo on their bodies. Tattoos had to be earned through physical acts or other ways of standing up to authority, whether it was inside or outside of the prison. If the tattoos were undeserved, they would be forcibly removed from the person before they were further punished with beatings or worse. These days, the tattoo guidelines of the Thieves in Law are no longer followed and inmates are creating their own images with varied meaning.

Russian prison tattoos and meanings

This is one of the most widespread tattoo designs that is easily recognizable in the Russian criminal underworld. Only a convict who has served his time can get a church or a kremlin tattooed on his body. Also, the number of domes is not random; it equals the number of prison terms served by the owner of the tattoo.

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Our Motherland 'We love our Motherland like a bride, and cherish her as an affectionate mother. When placed on the knees, it was also meant to convey fearlessness and not being willing to kneel before anyone but God himself. Prisoners that wear a tattoo of barbed wire are telling the world that they received a life sentence without the chance of parole and will die in prison. Chest, abdomen. However, the distinctive aspects of the Russian prison tattoo tradition set it apart from these other examples. For example, sometimes tattoos are enough to send a person back to prison or even save the life of a man with a badge. Various cat tattoos. Read more. He fanatically hated the CPSU. Kill their lordships the Communists! Hip, thigh, buttock. Skulls can also indicate rebellion against the government, as it is a symbol for baring teeth at the system. This ubiquity along with the reduction in violence meant that the "criminal authorities" stopped punishing "unearned" tattoos. Combinations of imagery, such as a rose, barbed wire and a dagger, form combined meanings.

During the 20th century in the Soviet Union , Russian criminal and prison communities maintained a culture of using tattoos to indicate members' criminal career and ranking. Specifically among those imprisoned under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, the tattoos served to differentiate a criminal leader or thief in law from a political prisoner. The practice grew in the s, peaking in the s and declining in popularity in the s and s.

The medals are awards that existed before the revolution and as such are signs of defiance towards the Soviet regime. An artistic tattoo belonging to a young prostitute. However, if the scorpion has open claws or a raised tail, it represents a Special Forces member who has seen combat. ISBN They aimed to take authority away from those in power, transforming a punitive act into a badge of honor they willingly embraced. In , perestroika and the new increase in tattoo parlours made tattooing fashionable, and further diluted the status of tattoos as a solely criminal attribute. Patriotic Tattoos The tattoos depicted are not 'Portachkami' [rough, youth tattoos] which are rare at this time Religious Icons. A Jesus and Mary tattoo represents that the wearer was either born in prison or into crime. Known ranks were captains, lieutenants and colonels. Barbed wire told other inmates that the prison was serving a life sentence, and would spend the rest of their days incarcerated. The date denotes the day the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was founded. In the 19th century, a "pricked" cross on the left hand was often used to identify deserters from the army, and up until , criminals sentenced to hard labour were branded "BOP" thief , the letters on the forehead and cheeks.