just picked up a really fascinating book called russian criminal tattoo encyclopedia. from the jacket: the drawings in this book are part of a collection of more than 3000 tattoos accumulated over a lifetime by prison attendant danzig baldev. tattoos were his gateway into a secret world in which he acted as ethnogropher, recording the rituals of a closed society. it’s a nice book. below you will find some examples of the russian prison tattos found within. they are mostly nsfw and beyond that some folks may find them offensive, but they are prison tattoos afterall.

A friend gave me this book last Christmas. I thought it was pretty disturbing, but very intriguing nonetheless. I also found myself wondering if Baldev made some of these illustrations up. A few of them just seemed a bit too bizarre to be real.

yeah, you know when i was in the middle of scanning them i suddenly realized that they were kind of an awful thing to post. ah well. you got this as an x-mas gift?! hahaha. sure why not? a little egg-nog, a little satan rape. tis the season.

you got this as an x-mas gift?! hahaha.

it was from a friend who knows me well enough to understand how much I’d appreciate an off-beat present like this, and you have to admit it’s a lot more interesting than getting socks and underwear.

I saw that book in the borders/waldenbooks/whatever in park slope! good lord! it’s enough to give the devil nightmares! (i bought a reason tutorial book; need before want, you know). almost as interesting as the tattoos is the explanations of what they mean. like bosch: everything means something.

incidentally, as a mailman, i am aware of a much milder american analog to this, the drawings on letters home. we instantly recognize any envelope with drawing on it as probable prison mail. the ‘fate’ entry most resembles prison mail, though cartoon characters are very common.

Interesting!

was mainly intrigued by the tattoo of the beheading of St john the baptist, for i was writing about caravaggio’s piece that deals with the same biblical issue.
and i follow the evolution of the iconographic image of Salome in during history. so, i was not surprised to find her here, inside the steamy walls of Russian prison…a place that represent, whether we like it or not, human in a very small extreme none free space. and boy, what we can learn from that.
some of those tattoos have an “air” of religious-iconographic influence, whether the people who made hem were aware of thus, i don’t know.
anyhow, i thank you again, for your interesting post!!!!

Very good book. I have it as well

Of course,I am a book worm.I am always keen in reading of books in different kind.It is my pleasure to have chance to read this blog.Thanks for this good post.
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