BOOK FORMAT
Boxed, 5.75 x 9 in. / 1200 pgs / 1000 bw. Signed & numbered edition of 25 copie

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 12/31/2012
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2009 p. 136

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780955862038 SDNR20
List Price: $1,995.00 CDN $2,400.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

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Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Limited Edition Boxed Set

Edited by Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell.

This stunning, limited edition three-volume boxed set is housed in a handmade, clothbound archival Solander box--and only this first edition will include a gilcée print signed and numbered by photographer Sergei Vasiliev. The enclosed volumes, previously published on their own, and some out of print, feature drawings and photographs from the extraordinary archives of photographers Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev. After losing a number of family members to exile or Gulag, Baldaev--at the suggestion of his imprisoned father, an ethnologist--made the ethnographic study of Russian prison tattoos his life's work. Scouring prisons, hospitals and morgues--to which he had entrée through his work as a prison guard--he captured more than 3,000 tattoos (these volumes weigh in at a combined 1,200 pages) documenting this secret world of signs and symbols, uncovering their hidden meanings and revealing their strange beauty and often surprising level of craft.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Lumberjac

The Editors

A life of crime reveals its permanent side with the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Set. Tattoos often tell a story about the person who gets inked up, and that’s no different for convicts who have spent their time in the Russian jail system. These offenders have created a unique style that revolves around the artful, distasteful, and sexually explicit including harems of naked women, daggers with blood, benign images of Christ and sweet-faced mothers and babies. Although not your average tattoo you’d see on LA Inked, these tattoos capture a subculture that is a fascinating as it is strange. The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Set, as it implies, is part of a collection of over 3000 tattoos captured by prison attendant Danzig Baldaev.