Russian Prison Tattoos

Tattoos on the forehead are forcibly tattood and designed to humiliate the wearer and warn others about him or her. They can consist of sexual slurs about the wearers sexual orientation or perceived collusion with the Russian prison authorities.

Tattoos that consist of political or anti-authoritarian statements are known as "grins", they are often tattooed on the stomach as a means of aquiring status in the criminal community.

Yuri Dubyagin, a Russian criminologist, claimed that during the Soviet era there existed 'secret orders' that anti-government tattoos were to be removed by force, this would take the form of a surgical procedure and would quite often lead to the death of the prisoner.

Quite often, such a tattoo would be forcibly done on a criminal by other inmates, as a punishment, this was usually done on the inmates back and was known as 'thieves code'.

Not nice places - Russian Prisons - back then.

Australian Criminal Tattoos

Tattoos are used among criminals to show ownership of gangs and record the wearers personal history - such as his or her skills, specialities, accomplishments and convictions. They are also means of personal expression.

Certain designs have developed recognised coded meanings. The code system can be quite complex and because of the nature of what they encode, the tattoos become widely recognised.

Prisoners who were transported from Britain to Australia back in 1787 to 1867 were sometimes tattooed with marks intended to signify disgrace, for example, D for deserter. However, prisoners often modified these tattoos to conceal the original design or to express wry or rebellious messages.