The Russian Criminal Tattoo Archive presents highlights from FUEL’s singular collection of authentic material on this subject

Previously unpublished in its original form, the material in this archive comprises ink-on-paper drawings by Danzig Baldaev, the photographic albums of Arkady Bronnikov and prisoner portraits by Sergei Vasiliev. The selection is contextualised with insights from Mark Vincent PhD (author and academic specialising in the Soviet Gulag) and Alison Nordström (photography scholar, writer and curator).

The meticulous depictions of tattoos by prison guard Danzig Baldaev are reproduced in facsimile, authenticated by his signature and stamp, alongside his handwritten notes on the reverse. Sergei Vasiliev’s photographs portray inmates in startling intimacy, reproduced in colour for the first time. Arkady Bronnikov’s collection of photographs are shown in the albums in which they were collected. Used exclusively to aid police in their investigations, they depict a motley line-up of assorted body parts.

This unique book is the only publication of primary material on this subject, highlighting the pioneering methods of these three individuals used to document this unique phenomenon.

About the Authors:

Danzig Baldaev worked as a warden in ‘Kresty’ (‘the Crosses’) – an infamous Leningrad prison – where he began drawing the tattoos of criminals. Between 1948-2000 he travelled to reform settlements across the former USSR, using pen and ink to record the tattoos he found.
Sergei Vasiliev worked as a photographic journalist for more than 30 years. He documented Russian prisoners and their tattoos in between 1990-93. His work has been exhibited internationally including in the Saatchi Gallery, London and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin.
Arkady Bronnikov was a police officer working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Perm between 1963-91. During this time, he collected thousands of photographs of tattooed prisoners from across the Soviet Union.
Mark Vincent is a writer and academic. He is the author of Criminal Subculture in the Gulag (Bloomsbury). He is a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, School of History.

The photographs, drawings and texts published in this book are part of a collection of more than 3,000 tattoos accumulated over a lifetime by prison attendant Danzig Baldaev. Tattoos were his gateway into a secret world in which he acted as ethnographer, recording the rituals of a closed society.

The icons and tribal languages he documented are artful, distasteful, sexually explicit and sometimes just strange, reflecting as they do the lives and traditions of Russian convicts.

Skulls, swastikas, harems of naked women, a smiling Al Capone, medieval knights in armour, daggers sheathed in blood, benign images of Christ, sweet-faced mothers and their babies, armies of tanks, and a horned Lenin - these are the signs by which the people of this hidden world mark and identify themselves.

This is the final volume of drawings and photographs from Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev, which completes the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia trilogy. 

Danzig Baldaev documented over three thousand tattoos during a lifetime working as a prison guard. His recording of this esoteric world was reported to the KGB who unexpectedly supported him, realising the importance of being able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images on their bodies. The motifs depicted represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics and alcohol. The illustrated criminals of Russia tell the tale of their closed society.

With an introduction by historian Alexander Sidorov, exploring the origin of Russian criminal tattoos and their meaning today.

This book features over 180 photographs and accompanying texts of Russian criminal tattoos from the Arkady Bronnikov collection.

From the mid-1960s to the late- 1980s Bronnikov worked as a senior expert in criminalistics at the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, part of his duties involved visiting correctional institutions of the Ural and Siberia regions. It was here that he interviewed, gathered information and took photographs of convicts and their tattoos, building one of the most comprehensive archives of this phenomenon. He regularly helped to solve criminal cases across Russia by using his collection of tattoos to identify culprits and corpses.

The Bronnikov collection was made exclusively for police use, to further the understanding of the language of these tattoos and to act as an aid in the identification and apprehension of criminals in the field. Unimpeded by artistry, these vernacular photographs present a guileless representation of criminal society. Every image discloses evidence of an inmate’s character: aggressive, vulnerable, melancholic, conceited. Their bodies display an unofficial history, told not just through tattoos, but also in scars and missing digits. Closer inspection only confirms our inability to comprehend the unimaginable lives of this previously unacknowledged caste.

This second volume of the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia is an essential companion to the critically acclaimed first volume. It features previously unpublished drawings and photographs from the extraordinary archives of Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev.

During his lifetime as a guard in St Petersburg's notorious Kresty Prison, Baldaev diligently recorded over 3,000 criminals' tattoos and their coded meanings. His drawings form a unique gallery; a passport into a hidden world of shovel-faced politicians, fornicating devils, messages tangled in barbed wire. Tattoos on hands, feet, legs, torsos, foreheads, eyelids, buttocks and genitals all take their place in this fascinating document of a rapidly disappearing criminal society, where history, status and even sexual preference are indelibly etched on the body.

Introduction by Anne Applebaum, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.

This is the final volume of drawings and photographs from Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev, which completes the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia trilogy. 

Danzig Baldaev documented over three thousand tattoos during a lifetime working as a prison guard. His recording of this esoteric world was reported to the KGB who unexpectedly supported him, realising the importance of being able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images on their bodies. The motifs depicted represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics and alcohol. The illustrated criminals of Russia tell the tale of their closed society.

With an introduction by historian Alexander Sidorov, exploring the origin of Russian criminal tattoos and their meaning today.

A unique insight into the design of hand-made Soviet prison playing cards and their link to the Russian criminal underworld.

This book reveals the importance of playing cards in Russian criminal culture. The hand-made decks are beautiful works of art in their own right. Prohibited by the prison authorities, they are constructed from innocuous materials procured from the everyday routine of prison life. During construction, both the cards and their designs are adroitly manipulated so they can be ‘read’. Once complete the ‘virtuoso’ player prowls the prison, searching for a suitable victim. This complete process is described here for the first time. Extensive diagrams show how the cards are made, while decks of actual prison cards are reproduced in facsimile. 

The book also features a further 180 photographs from the Arkady Bronnikov collection. The texts and captions accompanying these images reveal the connection between the criminal hierarchy, tattoos and playing cards. The respect commanded by any criminal was directly related to his ability to play, and win, at cards. The game was viewed as a means to demonstrate cunning and bravado. Failure to pay a gambling debt could result in a forcibly applied pornographic tattoo, lowering their bearer’s status. The loser would also be made to pay the ‘pricker’ (tattooist). Fingers, ears, even eyes, might be lost – cut off in the presence of other prisoners as witnesses.