Convict Tattoos

At least thirty-seven per cent of male convicts and fifteen per cent of female convicts were tattooed by the time they arrived in the penal colonies, making Australians quite possibly the world's most heavily tattooed English-speaking people of the nineteenth century. Each convict’s details, including their tattoos, were recorded when they disembarked, providing an extensive physical account of Australia's convict men and women. Simon Barnard has meticulously combed through those records to reveal a rich pictorial history. Convict Tattoos explores various aspects of tattooing—from the symbolism of tattoo motifs to inking methods, from their use as means of identification and control to expressions of individualism and defiance—providing a fascinating glimpse of the lives of the people behind the records. Simon Barnard was born and grew up in Launceston. He spent a lot of time in the bush as a boy, which led to an interest in Tasmanian history. He is a writer, illustrator and collector of colonial artifacts. He now lives in Melbourne. He won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books in the 2015 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year awards for his first book, A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Convict Tattoos is his second book. ‘The early years of penal settlement have been recounted many times, yet Convict Tattoos genuinely breaks new ground by examining a common if neglected feature of convict culture found among both male and female prisoners.’ Australian ‘This niche subject has proved fertile ground for Barnard—who is ink-free—by providing a glimpse into the lives of the people behind the historical records, revealing something of their thoughts, feelings and experiences.’ Mercury 'The best thing to happen in Australian tattoo history since Cook landed. A must-have for any tattoo historian.’ Brett Stewart, Australian Tattoo Museum

At least thirty-seven per cent of male convicts and fifteen per cent of female convicts were tattooed by the time they arrived in the penal colonies, making Australians quite possibly the world's most heavily tattooed English-speaking people of the nineteenth century. Each convict’s details, including their tattoos, were recorded when they disembarked, providing an extensive physical account of Australia's convict men and women. Simon Barnard has meticulously combed through those records to reveal a rich pictorial history. Convict Tattoos explores various aspects of tattooing—from the symbolism of tattoo motifs to inking methods, from their use as means of identification and control to expressions of individualism and defiance—providing a fascinating glimpse of the lives of the people behind the records. Simon Barnard was born and grew up in Launceston. He spent a lot of time in the bush as a boy, which led to an interest in Tasmanian history. He is a writer, illustrator and collector of colonial artifacts. He now lives in Melbourne. He won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books in the 2015 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year awards for his first book, A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Convict Tattoos is his second book.

In prison, the tattoo stakes a claim to individuality. In "Prison Tattoos", Douglas Hall Kent uses his camera as a sociologist's tool, photographing inmates from America's prisons whose tattoos, professionally done and homemade, indelibly imprint on their bodies what these men desire in their souls: autonomy and identity. Includes 80 pages of photos and a page of temporary tattoos.

An ethnography of the tattoo community, tracing the practice's transformation from a mostly male, working-class phenomenon to one adapted and propagated by a more middle-class movement in the period from the 1970s to the present.

This final volume of previously unpublished drawings and photographs completes the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopadia trilogy. Danzig Baldaev's unparalleled ethnographic achievement, documenting over 3,000 tattoo drawings, was made during a lifetime working as a prison guard. The motifs depicted represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics and alcohol. A medieval knight is surrounded by the severed heads of his enemies, a naked woman simultaneously services a man and two dwarfs, a crying President Gorbachev grips a human bone between sabre-like fangs, a group of angels drinks vodka with God on a cloud - the meanings of these arresting images are explained to the uninitiated eye. Accompanied by graphic photographs showing the grim reality of the Russian prison system and some of the alarming characters that inhabit it, the illustrated criminals of Russia tell the tale of their closed society.

In recent decades, tattoos have gone from being a subculture curiosity in Western culture to mainstream and commonplace. This two-volume set provides broad coverage of tattooing and body art in the United States today as well as around the world and throughout human history. In the 1960s, tattooing was illegal in many parts of the United States. Today, tattooing is fully ingrained in mainstream culture and is estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar industry. This exhaustive work contains approximately 400 entries on tattooing, providing historical information that enables readers to fully understand the methods employed, the meanings of, and the motivations behind tattooing—one of the most ancient ways humans mark themselves. The encyclopedia covers all important aspects of the topic of tattooing: the major types of tattooing, the cultural groups associated with tattooing, the regions of the world where tattooing has been performed, the origins of modern tattooing in prehistory, and the meaning of each society's use of tattoos. Major historical and contemporary figures associated with tattooing—including tattooists, tattooed people, and tattoo promoters—receive due attention for their contributions. The entries and sidebars also address the sociological movements involved with tattooing; the organizations; the media dedicated to tattooing, such as television shows, movies, magazines, websites, and books; and the popular conventions, carnivals, and fairs that have showcased tattooing.

This Brief studies the important role that tattoos play in prison culture, and examines its unique manifestation among minority inmates. This work aims to provide a better understanding of prison group culture, particularly among social marginal groups, through the lens of Russian immigrants in Israeli prisons. Russian immigrants currently represent approximately 25% of the total Israeli prison population, and this book examines how tattoos show an important form of rebellion amongst this group. As tattoos are forbidden in some forms of Islam and Judaism, and the Israeli prison service confiscates over 200 homemade tattoo devices per year, this is a significant phenomenon both before and during incarceration. This work examines how despite the transition to Israel, the main social codes of Russian prisoners are still dominant and help segregate this group from the larger prison population. It provides a lens to understand Russian criminal activity in Israel, and in a larger context, the modes of social cohesion and criminal activity of organized crime groups operating in prison systems. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the organized crime and the criminal justice system, Russian organized crime in particular, as well as related studies of immigration, demography, and social cohesion.

A collection of eleven chapters which explore the question of forgery from different disciplinary angles and in varied national contexts, using the concept of performance to gain greater insight.