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Fade symbols of life to bloodshed dedicated, violence and unspoken moral of the Russian underworld.
But aside from a diverse collection of drawings and letters nonsense has any tattoo a meaning, and for those who know, can be read as a biography of the owner's gangster past.
These haunting images were taken in the early 1990s by photographer Sergei Vasiliev, having won access to some of the toughest prisons Russia at the height of the gang wars that followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
different prisons have different styles, such as the gangsters is to show through the prison system, while sentences were threatening also very popular, such as "My conscience is among my friends" and "clearly can not be, he escaped happiness".
There are also a variety of tattoos marking ranking sources in the hierarchy of a mobster, detailing all the successes and failures, promotions, and its degradation, borrowed 'his prison and "transfers" of its various types of work.
And the penalties for a tattoo that you can not not win be severe.
At best, they are removed with sandpaper, glass, a brick or a razor blade. If he be denied the perpetrators are raped or killed.
Damon Murray, publisher of a series of three-book Russian Tattoo criminal encyclopedia, in which the images will be named, said: "Because of this hard line, tattoos, even the highest level of integrity by, they were as something important otherwise a criminal.
"If you were able to unlock the code, then you can read the story criminals, it was difficult to hide from the past.
lower status "to them" are tattoos with violence by criminals as a method of punishment, the loss on the cards and so on, to have been applied. "
"Virtually all tattoos that are as" may seem erotic fall "in this category, be far from exciting, the only emotion, this type of tattoo will stir in a fear of the prisoners."
Vasiliev was a policeman to stop before work to pursue his true passion of photography. But it was because of his law enforcement past that he managed to convince the guards to give him access to the prisons and reform settlements anywhere in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Perm and St. Petersburg.
But it was his charm and guile to convince him, helped the prisoners to remove their clothes and posing in front of his camera.
The early 1990s saw some horribly violent gangster Russia has ever seen.
When the Soviet Union was politically fragmented, it came over a power range of ruthless war between Mafia kingpins.
Murray added: "These people some of Russia were the most dangerous and hurt a very thin line between life and death.
"In fact, because of their lifestyle, most of these men and women today would probably not be alive."
But aside from a diverse collection of drawings and letters nonsense has any tattoo a meaning, and for those who know, can be read as a biography of the owner's gangster past.
These haunting images were taken in the early 1990s by photographer Sergei Vasiliev, having won access to some of the toughest prisons Russia at the height of the gang wars that followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
different prisons have different styles, such as the gangsters is to show through the prison system, while sentences were threatening also very popular, such as "My conscience is among my friends" and "clearly can not be, he escaped happiness".
There are also a variety of tattoos marking ranking sources in the hierarchy of a mobster, detailing all the successes and failures, promotions, and its degradation, borrowed 'his prison and "transfers" of its various types of work.
And the penalties for a tattoo that you can not not win be severe.
At best, they are removed with sandpaper, glass, a brick or a razor blade. If he be denied the perpetrators are raped or killed.
Damon Murray, publisher of a series of three-book Russian Tattoo criminal encyclopedia, in which the images will be named, said: "Because of this hard line, tattoos, even the highest level of integrity by, they were as something important otherwise a criminal.
"If you were able to unlock the code, then you can read the story criminals, it was difficult to hide from the past.
lower status "to them" are tattoos with violence by criminals as a method of punishment, the loss on the cards and so on, to have been applied. "
"Virtually all tattoos that are as" may seem erotic fall "in this category, be far from exciting, the only emotion, this type of tattoo will stir in a fear of the prisoners."
Vasiliev was a policeman to stop before work to pursue his true passion of photography. But it was because of his law enforcement past that he managed to convince the guards to give him access to the prisons and reform settlements anywhere in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Perm and St. Petersburg.
But it was his charm and guile to convince him, helped the prisoners to remove their clothes and posing in front of his camera.
The early 1990s saw some horribly violent gangster Russia has ever seen.
When the Soviet Union was politically fragmented, it came over a power range of ruthless war between Mafia kingpins.
Murray added: "These people some of Russia were the most dangerous and hurt a very thin line between life and death.
"In fact, because of their lifestyle, most of these men and women today would probably not be alive."
