Tattooing should be illegal once more. That’s what I was thinking for the first time in my life after a phone conference with a cheezy marketing director who sought to impress me with his knowledge of tattoo cool by using words like “tats” or “getting tatted” or some other cringe-worthy variation. He said he wanted his project to appeal to serious “ink collectors” and “the cute chick with ass antlers.” Somehow I managed to swallow the vomit in my mouth and decline the offer to work with him.

Now, I’ve trumpeted the revolution of a tattoo democracy where information on the best tattooists is shared, studios are sterile, and Kat Von D is the new object of female beauty. I fully embrace the feel good stories like those in the news this past week about one grandma getting tattooed or a fan’s indelible tribute to news hottie Andersen Cooper.

But I confess. There are certain moments when I long for the time when tattoos were just badass. I’m having one of those moments, and so today, I dedicate Needled News to the ole Russian criminal tattoo.



I’m particularly inspired by Film Threat’s review of Mark of Cain, a documentary of tattoos in Russia’s penal colonies by director Alix Lambert, who also wrote one of my favorite tattoo books Russian Prison Tattoos: Codes of Authority, Domination, and Struggle.

Film Threat offers a glimpse into Mark of Cain that helps me realize that no matter how much tattoo coverage I have, I’m only just as hood as Justin Timberlake and as cool as a CEO who calls 'em tatts:

The film sounds just as engaging as Lambert’s book but she's still looking for a distributor to release it on DVD in the US.

Beyond their cultural significance shown by Lambert, some of the prison tattoos are incredibly artistic even if created with pee. To better understand what I mean, pick up the two volumes of the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia.

Heavier on the imagery than Lambert’s book, the Encyclopedias include drawings of popular criminal tattoo motifs by former Russian prison guard, Danzig Baldaev, and photos by Sergei Vasiliev. You can see a slideshow of some of these images on BBC news online, including this one below of what I’d call the original Suicide Girls:



For both, men and women, the Encyclopedias feature a variety of criminal motifs. I’m a particular fan of the sexual tattoos and even picked up a new position or two. Add that to Stalin as the Grim Reaper and other death effigies, and you have a great holiday gift!

Most important, these books are a piece of history because I don’t see a third prison volume coming out. As the tide of tattoo culture turns, we’re more likely to see Clay Aiken tattoo portraits than of Lenin. And so goes the revolution.

Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture.