Fwd: Russian Criminal Tattoos

[Simon Beattie]

I remember some years ago, in a British Library exhibition, there being a
book showing various Russian prison tattoos.  A quick search in the BL
catalogue comes up with Baldaev, "Slovar' blatnogo vorovskogo zhargona"
(1997), which may have been it, but also by Baldaev is the "Russian Criminal
Tattoo Encyclopedia" (2003), published by Steidl:
http://www.steidlville.com/books/5-Russian-Criminal-Tattoo-Encyclopedia.html
.  In the past, I've seen this for sale with dealers specialising in
photobooks.  It's become quite a collectable (i.e. potentially expensive)
book.  Lastly, I just came across Alix Lambert, "Russian Prison Tattoos:
Codes of Authority, Domination and Struggle":
http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn=0764317644.

Hope this may help.

All the best,

Simon


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Graham Wilkins
Sent: 31 March 2011 13:02
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Fwd: Russian Criminal Tattoos

The student could check out the documentary film The Mark of Cain.  It isn't
explicitly about Russian mafia and their tattoos (I think Vor v Zakone is
what they are often called), but there is some explanation of their
meanings.  The overall focus is on prison life in Russia.

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 7:37 AM, <gfowler at indiana.edu> wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> A student in my second-year Russian class asked me yesterday about Russian
> criminal tattoos. Of course I know nothing at all about this, but I asked
> her to write up her question in forwardable form. If anyone can help her,
> I'd be delighted to pass along any information sent directly to me or
posted
> to this list. Thanks in advance!
>
> George Fowler
>
> The student writes:
>
> I've had a few questions about Russian criminal tattoos pop up recently.
> First of all I'll make the disclaimer that I don't know exactly what the
> proper name for the Russian Mafia/Mob/Cartel/Bratva is, so I'll just be
> using Mafia as a catch all - feel free to specify or to not get into it
(I'd
> like to learn, but my point in asking is the tattoos)
>
> My first question is: at what frequency these are given in prisons versus
> those who get them done outside of prison. For example, the stars on the
> collar bone and knees seem to be done mostly outside of prison (from my
> extremely limited understanding, do correct me if I'm wrong), while
> something like shackles would be more likely than not acquired during
> incarceration. The tattoos I have specific questions about are the hands
> holding the Kremlin, the stars for ranking, and the epaulets on the
> shoulders (more specifically with the imperialist rankings over the
soviet,
> but any information will do) What are the exact meanings of these tattoos,
> in what organizations/rings of crime are people more likely to get them,
> and
> how are they likely to be acquired? Is prison most likely for them all, or
> are they concevably gained while outside of jail?
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
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