Books : Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9783882439205
ISBN: 3882439203
Label: Steidl
Manufacturer: Steidl
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2003-12
Publisher: Steidl
Release Date: March 02, 2004
Sales Rank: 435069
Studio: Steidl
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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. Edited by Danzig Baldayev. Clothbound, 4.75 x 8 in./400 pgs / 0 color 250 BW0 duotone illustrations~ Item D20362
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book happens to be out of print and gaining value everyday. If you have the $ to spend its quite the addition to any book collection. Heart breaking story's of sorrow, misery, love, hate and much more. This book was also what inspired the director of Eastern Promises to re-write his script. If you find this book interesting, I suggest buying the DVD "Mark of Cain"
Rating: -
When I bought this book, I flipped through the pages and looked at all the tattoos before reading anything. The tattoos were interesting enough, but I had to read the introduction to understand the culture that was molded wholly around the artwork itself. This encyclopedia gives a detailed account of what having a tattoo means in the culture of Russian prisoners. In many societies, tattoos mean very little. Many people get them on a whim, or go into a parlor knowing they want one, but not knowing what they want (probably a butterfly on her back, or a tribal band around his arm). This book explains how tattoos among Russian inmates serve as their resumes--who they are, what they've done, where they rank in the society, who they serve, how they feel about the state... the culture made possible by the tattoos is extremely fascinating, but you have to either be an inmate or read a book written by a credible source (read: this book) to find out about all the facets of it.
Rating: -
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.
Rating:  -
well, first of all, the book is shocking and distrubing. the book is mainly made up of drawings. These drawings are actual tattoos and many of them are accompanied by a brief story about the persons lifestyle or conviction. There are about, lets say 30 photos at the most, there is some nudity in the photos, male and female. Some of tattoo drawings are extremely XXX in context.Yeah its hard to beleive that someone would tattoo a graphic image of some sex acts on their skin. this book does have a lengthly introduction about the meanings of the whole Thieves World tattoos, there are pages also showing the meanings of the Finger ring tattoos which was quite interesting.The book mainly states that behind the meaning of alot of the tattoos its a personal expression against the soviet system, plain and simple.
The book gives you a feel about how it was to be caught up in the soviet system. I bought the book because i have been around the whole mexican gang scene and i have seen the tattoos that many of them get, and i just wanted to see the similarites of the criminal underworlds. Its all the same around the world.this
book will offend you no matter what, If you really want to still
learn more about the about the tattoos, get both of the books that amazon has here.
Rating:  -
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.
Browse for similar items by category:
|
