Russian criminal tattoos

During the 20th century in the Soviet Union, Russian criminal and prison communities maintained a culture of using tattoos to indicate members' criminal career and ranking. Specifically among those imprisoned under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, the tattoos served to differentiate a criminal leader or thief in law from a political prisoner.
The practice grew in the 1930s, peaking in the 1950s and declining in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.
The branding of criminals was practised in Russia long before tattooing was customary, and was banned in 1863. In the 19th century, a "pricked" cross on the left hand was often used to identify deserters from the army, and up until 1846, criminals sentenced to hard labour were branded "BOP" (thief), the letters on the forehead and cheeks. Brands were also applied to the shoulder blade and the right forearm, in three categories; "CK" for Ssylno-Katorzhny (hard labour convict), "SP" for Ssylno-Poselenets (hard labour deportee) and "Б" for Begly (escapee). In 1846, VOR was replaced by "KAT"; the first three letters of the word for "hard labour convict" or katorzhnik.
In the 1930s, Russian criminal castes began to emerge, such as the Masti (suits) and the Vor v Zakone (rus. Вор в Законе) or Blatnye (authoritative thieves), and with that a tattoo culture to define rank and reputation. Up until World War II, any tattoo could denote a professional criminal, the only exception being tattoos on sailors.
Under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, laws that were implemented in mid-1940 allowed short prison sentences to be given to those convicted of petty theft, hooliganism, or labor discipline infractions. This led to an increase in the prison population during and after World War II. By January 1941, the Gulag workforce had increased by approximately 300,000 prisoners. Tattoos served to differentiate between an authority or "thief in law", and the many hundreds of thousands of political prisoners who were imprisoned during and shortly after World War Two for crimes not considered those of a "Vor" (thief).
Some of the motifs came from English sailor tattoos, such as the flying tall ships, a heart pierced by a dagger, anchors, a serpent-entwined heart or a tiger baring its teeth.
A thief's collection of tattoos represents his "suit" (mast), which indicates his status within the community of thieves and his control over other thieves within the thieves' law. In Russian criminal jargon or Fenya (феня), a full set of tattoos is known as frak s ordenami (a tailcoat with decorations). The tattoos show a "service record" of achievements and failures, prison sentences and the type of work a criminal does. They might also represent his "thief's family", naming others within hearts or with the traditional tomcat image. Misappropriation of the tattoos of a "legitimate thief" could be punished by death, or the prisoner would be forced to remove them themselves "with a knife, sandpaper, a shard of glass or a lump of brick".
After World War II a schism occurred in the criminal world leading to the Bitch Wars. Many convicts had fought in penal units, in contravention of the thieves' code that no thief should serve in the military or cooperate with authorities in any way. Many legitimate thieves found themselves demoted to frayer (outsider), muzhik (мужик, peasant), or suka (сука, traitor, bitch). This was part of a power struggle; with limited resources in prison, outlawing the "bitches" (suki) allowed the legitimate thieves to take more for themselves.
Tattoos were modified and new designs appeared to distinguish between the two groups. The dagger piercing a heart was modified, adding an arrow: this tattoo indicated a legitimate thief and his desire to seek vengeance against those who had violated the thieves' code. The compass rose became an indicator of aggression to prison officials and the "bitches", indicating the vow that "I will never wear epaulettes" and hatred towards those who had served in the Soviet Army. Secret acronyms were created by legitimate thieves that the "bitches" wouldn't recognise, such as СЛОН (SLON, "elephant"), meaning Суки Любят Острый Нож (Suki Lyubyat Ostry Nozh, "Bitches love a sharp knife").
In the 1950s Nikita Khrushchev declared a policy for the eradication of criminality from Soviet society. Along with propaganda denouncing the "traditional thief" that had grown in popularity in Russian culture, punishments in the prisons intensified for anyone that identified as a legitimate thief, including beatings and torture. As a response to this persecution, the thieves' laws were intensified and the punishment for prisoners wearing unearned tattoos increased from removal to rape and murder.
By the 1970s, the intensification of the thieves' laws had resulted in reprisals against the legitimate thieves, orchestrated by prison authorities who would often throw a legitimate thief into cells with prisoners they had punished or raped. To reduce tensions, criminal leaders outlawed rites of passage and outlawed rape as a punishment. Fights between inmates were outlawed and conflicts were to be resolved through mediation by senior thieves. Additionally, a fashion for tattooing had spread through juvenile prisons, increasing the number of inmates with "illegitimate" tattoos. This ubiquity along with the reduction in violence meant that the "criminal authorities" stopped punishing "unearned" tattoos.
In 1985, perestroika and the new increase in tattoo parlours made tattooing fashionable, and further diluted the status of tattoos as a solely criminal attribute.
The tattooists, or kol'shchiki (prickers), were held in high regard. Tattoo needles can be referred to as peshnya (ice pick), pchyolka (bee), shpora (spur), or shilo (sting), while the tattoo machine can be referred to as mashinka (little machine) or bormashina (dentist's drill), and the ink is referred to as either mazut (fuel oil) or gryaz (dirt). The tattoos themselves were referred to as a reklama (advertising), regalka (regalia), kleimo (brand), or rospis (painting).
Common designs and themes grew over the years, often having different meanings depending on the location of the tattoo. The imagery often does not literally mean what it is depicting—for example, tattoos displaying Nazi imagery represent a rejection of authority rather than an adherence to Nazism. Combinations of imagery, such as a rose, barbed wire and a dagger, form combined meanings. According to lexicographer Alexei Plutser-Sarno, the tattoos become the only "real aspects of his life". They are a symbol of the owner's commitment to war against the non-thief, the police (menty), and the "bitch" (suka). The environment in the Soviet era was one of heavy visual propaganda, and the tattoos are a reaction to that, and a "grin at authority" (oskal na vlast), often directly parodying official Soviet slogans with Communist Party leaders often depicted as devils, donkeys, or pigs.
A thief's collection of tattoos represent his "suit" (mast), which indicates his status within the community of thieves and his control over other thieves within the thieves' law. They might also represent his "thief's family", naming others within hearts or with the traditional tom cat image.
Tattoos on the hands and fingers were common, and for women, palm tattoos showing insults were popular in the 1940s and 50s.
There are tattoos that are forcibly applied to signify "demotion" (razzhalovanie). These may depict sexual acts, and are designed to lower the owner in the eyes of other prisoners and draw harsh treatment from them. These can be applied to those convicted of sexual crimes, those who have not paid a debt, stool pigeons (ssuchenye), stooges (chukhany), and signify that the owner is expelled from the privileged section of a thieves society and are "untouchables" (neprikasaemye/chushki). Other thieves must not accept anything from them or be considered "infected" (zakontachit'sya). As a thief is "born" with his tattoos, they can also be used to signify his "death" and new status as an "untouchable". Even established thieves could be demoted, if, for example, they lost a card game and failed to honor their bets.