Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia [Hardcover]

Danzig Baldaev (Author), Sergei Vasiliev (Author), Alexei Plutser-Sarno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

Once upon a time, before the advent of the indie rocker and the alternative chick, before primitivism became a style trend and tattoo parlors set up shop on the good avenues, tattoos were the secret language of a restricted world, a world of criminals. The photographs, drawings and texts published here are part of a collection of 3,600 tattoos accumulated over a lifetime by prison attendant Danzig Baldayev. Tattoos were his entrance into a secret world, a world in which he acted as an ethnographer, recording the rituals of a closed society. The icons and tribal languages he documented are artful, distasteful, sexually explicit and sometimes just simply strange, reflecting as they do the lives and mores of convicts. Skulls, swastikas, harems of naked women, a smiling Al Capone, assorted demons, medieval knights in armor, daggers sheathed in blood, benign images of Christ, mosques and minarets, sweet-faced mothers and their babies, armies of tanks, and a horned Lenin--these are the signs with which this hidden world of people mark and identify themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A book that uncovers a secret language of the body that existed long before hipsters discovered primitivism. -- Flash Art

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Steidl (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3882439203
• ISBN-13: 978-3882439205
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A View into a Bizarre World, May 15, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia (Hardcover)

Every now and then a book comes out that illuminates a part of the world that was not only previously hidden but which could not even be imagined. Such a work is the _Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia_ (Steidl / Fuel), featuring mostly the drawings of tattoos by Danzig Baldaev, with photos by Sergei Vasiliev, and an explanatory essay by Alexei Plutser-Sarno. In these photos and tattoos, which I guarantee you are like nothing you have ever seen before, are reflected the horrors of Russia written on the skins of criminals. As strange as the pictures are, they are not so foreign as to eliminate sadness and tragedy; this is a book of devastation on many levels, and anyone flipping through the images will be enlightened about a very distant world, but also will be distressed and mystified.

The majority of pages are Danzig Baldaev's drawings of tattoos he has collected during a lifetime as a prison attendant. The book could not be published before, but Baldaev has brought it out now as a protest of the "long time all of us lived under the leadership of villains, tricksters, and bandits." There are what are called "legitimate thieves" in Russia. They represent a robber caste, criminals who have their own code of laws and obey it. It is in some part hereditary; there are tattoos here that proclaim proudly "My father was a thief." The legitimate thieves have a strict hierarchy that extends inside and out of prison, and are reputed to have representatives in all levels of the government and police. They have special control of life in "the zone", the prison camps, where most of the tattoos are applied. The tattoos are a type of uniform and a service record. In prison slang, someone's tattoos are known as his (or her) "tail coat with medals." The initiated may read on the criminal's body his crimes, his duration of imprisonment within the zone, his sexual proclivities, and much more. It might seem that bearing the initials of the Unified State Political Administration would attest the bearer's interest in keeping to the party line, but they actually stand for "Oh, God, help me to escape!" A tattoo may testify to "God," but only because the letters of that name are the initials for "I shall rob again." The anti-communist nature of many of these tattoos is obvious. From Lenin to Yeltsin, leaders are depicted as wolves, pigs, or rapists. These convicts are not dissidents, just outcasts who reject any sort of authority except that of their own brotherhood. Grotesquely anti-Semitic pictures of devils have a strange twist; they demonize the Jewish leaders who started the communist state. A swastika means not Nazism but anarchism.

The tattoos show a horrifying eagerness for violence against women, Jews, and politicians. They are funny sometimes, but also bitterly cruel. The photographs of the bearers, however, show tired or shy faces, or even angelic ones with eyes looking heavenward. This is a disturbing and astonishing book of a subculture and a way of life still playing a role in current affairs.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars surreal stuff, June 14, 2004

By 

John H. Haskell (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia (Hardcover)

I lived in Moscow for five years and had heard about criminal tattoos but had never seen any. This book was a fascinating, but depressing view of a completely different world and world-view from that of the Russians I knew. If you understand Russian and something of Russian culture the book is extremely interesting, but interesting even if you don't. My only complaint is that the tattoos are fascinating but the book is relatively light on text.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good book, March 27, 2006

By 

hombre pollo "pin" (Chatsworth, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia (Hardcover)

this is an excellent book for those interested in tattoo art from other countries. this book has a lot of sketches describing each tattoo and its meaning. it also has actual pictures of russian inmates with their facinating prison tattoos. i would not recomend this book for anyone under 18 since some of the tattoos/sketches of tattoos are extremely violent and pornograhic. But facinating at the same time.