CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/4/2016

Russian Criminal Tattoo Police Files

Reproduced from the latest in Fuel Publishing's cult Russian Criminal Tattoo Series, this vintage identification card documents the previous crimes of one Adolph Ivanovitch Dunaikin, born in Moscow in 1940 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. It is one of nearly 200 photographs and documents gathered by Russian criminologist Arkady Bronnikov from the mid-60s through the 1980s, published here alongside case studies and a lexicon of criminal ring tattoos, anatomical regions of the body and distinguishing facial features relevant to the interpretation of the tattoos. "Tattoos are a passport and biography," he writes. "They reflect the convict’s interests, his outlook on life, his world view. There are certain ‘distinguished’ tattoos that a convict earns the right to wear—visible signs of his authority and prestige. A prisoner has nothing of his own, no decent clothes, only the changeless prison garb. The only thing that belongs to him is his body and because of this it can be violated, bartered or turned into a picture gallery."