Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia - Volume 3 (Relié)

This is the final volume of drawings and photographs from Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev, which completes the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia trilogy. Danzig Baldaev documented over three thousand tattoos during a lifetime working as a prison guard. His recording of this esoteric world was reported to the KGB who unexpectedly supported him, realising the importance of being able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images on their bodies.
The motifs depicted represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics and alcohol. A medieval knight is surrounded by the severed heads of his enemies, a naked woman simultaneously services a man and two dwarfs, a crying President Gorbachev grips a human bone between sabre-like fangs, a host of angels drink vodka with God on a cloud. The illustrated criminals of Russia tell the tale of their closed society.
With an introduction by historian Alexander Sidorov, exploring the origin of Russian criminal tattoos and their meaning today.