<i>Bronnikov's elder son Vladimir ... also served in police. After 17 years of service, he was badly beaten undertaking his duties and his spine was broken. He now walks on crutches. His younger son Evgeniy was beaten to death in the street when trying to save a girl from rapists.</i><p>What a dark reminder that in society's underbelly convict tattoos are a sign of prestige and no good deed goes unpunished. No wonder that in cultures with "well-developed" underbellies, altruistic behavior tends to be less prevalent.
A few years back I picked up "Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Volumes 1-3" on Amazon[1] for something I was working on and they are fascinating.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Criminal-Tattoo-Encyclopaedia-I/dp/0955862078/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Criminal-Tattoo-Encyclopaedia-...</a>
The differences between Russian tattoo meanings and Australian is quite interesting. Especially the mention that for Russians the spider is a reference to drug users, while it is known in Australia to have been associated with pedophiles.
I just watched Deadly Code (Siberian Education) <a href="http://www.netflix.com/search/deadly?jbv=70302183&jbp=1&jbr=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.netflix.com/search/deadly?jbv=70302183&jbp=1&jbr=...</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1697064/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1697064/</a> with John Malkovich . The movie depicts some of the "thief" culture aspect.<p>More about the phenomenon in general:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law</a>
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the movie Eastern Promises yet.<p><a href="http://easternpromises.livejournal.com/47809.html?thread=111041" rel="nofollow">http://easternpromises.livejournal.com/47809.html?thread=111...</a>
An excellent Russian documentary on this topic is "The Mark of Cain" [0]. It goes into a lot of detail and interviews with prisoners, as well as a good portion of the film focused on the tattoo traditions in women's prisons.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mark_of_Cain_(2000_film)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mark_of_Cain_(2000_film)</a>
Trying to learn more about Russian prison tattoos some time ago. There is lots of contradictory and vague descriptions on the meanings and symbolism of Russian prison tattoos on the web. At times it seems a lot like tea leaf reading. The tattoos seem to mean anything you want.<p>I wonder if there really is such a thing as a commonly understood tattoo language that criminals know and enforce. Maybe in soviet times, but today?
Reminds me of this passage from Infinite Jest, detailing Tiny Ewell's obsession with tattoos: <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&lpg=PT148&ots=K3KtTeX6lc&dq=tiny%20ewell%20tattoos&pg=PT146#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.ca/books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&lpg=PT148&ots=...</a>
Really interesting article - one thing that caught my eye though, was the Looney Tunes wallpaper in their kitchen. That seems like an odd thing to find deep inside Russia.