A question about tattoos

[Wilkinson, C]

Is it going to be in Russian or English?

I've got a line of a Pushkin poem tattooed in Russian around my left
wrist and it used to draw a lot of comments from people in Russia,
though mainly from people over the age of 40. A lot of the time I'd
get asked why I did it and didn't I know it made me look like a
criminal, partly due it being on my forearm. However, a lot of the
time attitudes changed to amusement or good-natured bemusement when
they realised it was a line of poetry. I've yet to see what they make
of my more recent line from Mayakovsky's "Vo ves' golos", but it's
above the elbow so can very easily be covered.

I know attitudes to tattoos have changed a lot in the last decade as
they've become more mainstream (albeit arguably to a lesser extent in
Russia than in the UK and US), but my instinct is that having "life"
and "death" tattooed on one's forearms in any language is likely to be
interpreted "cautiously" by many people. That said, if it means enough
to him that he wishes to get it indelibly inked  on himself, he may
not see this as a major drawback - it's certainly likely to be a
conversation opener one way or another and he can always wear long
sleeves to cover it if a situation arises in which it seems prudent. A
quick Google search also suggests that English-language life/death
tattoos are far from uncommon, with ambigrams particularly popular
(e.g. http://www.whatsthedealwithyourtat.com/2008/08/whats-the-dea-4.html),
which, again, may or may not be seen as a drawback.

You may want to take a look at
http://www.tattooirovka.com/2007/02/12/znachenie_tatuirovok_zakljuchennykh.html
or find a copy of D.C. Baldaev's "Tatuirovki zaklyuchennykh" (Limbus
Press 2001 or 2006). There's also a list of acronyms used in prison
tattoos available at http://www.tyurem.net/books/tatoo/abbr.htm.
SMERT' is not on the list, but it does make me wonder if some people
may ask "komu?" in response to seeing "death/smert'" on someone's arm.
Finally, this article (http://www.tyurem.net/mytext/how/039.htm) may
be worth a read and there's a link to a forum where tattoos can be
discussed at the end of it.

Best wishes,

Claire

-- 
Claire Wilkinson

Lecturer in Russian
Centre for Russian & East European Studies
University of Birmingham
B15 2TT, UK

Muirhead Tower Room 633 (sixth floor, west wing)
Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 8242 (direct line work)
Skype: cxwilkinson
http://www.crees.bham.ac.uk/staff/wilkinson/index.htm

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