Tattoos in Russian prison: every part of skin was their most deterrent history

There was a special tattoo system in the prison of Russia.
The tattoos of all kinds of prisoners were the unique language or "signs" of the criminals in the prison.

Every tattoo represented a unique story.

For example:
How long has been stay in prison?
What has done before?
What kind of achievements has been made?

 The prisoners' tattooed stories by themselves.
They had their tattoo system and tattoo arts by using a variety of needles to make simple tools, burning some waste rubber to make ink.
A Russian warden named Baldaev took him 30 years to study more than 3000 kinds of tattoo designs and wrote a book called Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia.

Here are the most representative groups.
The most important pattern - stars
The position of the stars represented the most important position of the owner.
If the star was on the knee, it meant he was a leader.

And the stars on the shoulders of the chest meant a higher status.

Only the most respected prisoners in this prison could get the honor stars tattooed on the shoulder.

For example, Roman Vladimirovich was sent to prison for the first time when he was 20 years old. He was the most embarrassing criminal, and he never admitted defeat in the prison fight.

His highest record was a pick of 13. He was eventually defeated, but he scored four of his opponents into the ICU.
He got his stars when he was only six months away from the release of his sentence.
He struck a prison guard.
On this day, a provocative prison guard walked into his cell and told him,” Roman, you are going to be released from prison.”
Roman answered:” yes !”
The prison guard continued to say, “how can you come out? Just depending on your dirty conscience?”

It was naturally angered him.
Before this sentence was finished, Roman raided him to the ground and broke the prisoner's chin.
The prison guard was beaten a horrible. It was said that he was carried away by a stretcher...
Finally, Roman was confined to separate confinement where he was beaten by the prison guards for 12 days. Finally, he was unable to move and was carried back to the cell.
Although he received a lot of sufferings, by beating guard he won reputation and got the stars on his shoulder.
There were many different designs.
In the 1940s, the earliest designs of the prisoners... was Stalin or Lenin.

That would be... The prisoners thought Lenin or Stalin were the heads of prison guards. Tattooed them on their chests could protect themselves like amulets.
Because the prison guards wouldn't shoot at the head of the great man, they could protect themselves when they were in a critical situation such as riots.

However, the final facts proved useless. In the real crisis, the prison guards directly smashed the prisoners. There were no tattoos of eminent people on the head.
In addition, more and more patterns are created by them to  express various meanings with the development of the times
【eyes】
The eyes on the chest represented that he was a senior prisoner.
 
However, if it is the eyes on the hip, It meant he was gay.

In homophobic Russia, even if it was gay didn't mean it would be very miserable...
you could not only be tough gay and also get the stars on two shoulders.
 
【epaulettes】
The epaulettes also represent the "military rank" of the prisoners and the status.
Such as a lieutenant:

Major:

A higher rank would be like these.


【spider】
it Represented a thief. The spider's head was down representing that he gave up the business.
On the contrary, the head was up and said he would continue to commit crimes.
 
【church, or the Kremlin】
The number of spires on the church represented the times you had entered the prison.
The following buddies have entered the palace seven times.


If there was a cross on the spire, it meant that he had served the entire sentence.


【barbed wire】
The wire mesh pattern on the forehead indicated that he was imprisoned for life here, and it was never possible to go out again.
 
If the pattern was on the wrist, it meant the number of years in which you had served your sentence.

【Cat】
Representing he was a thief.
A cat meant an alone thief.
 
Several meant that you have accomplices.
 

【Goat】
The goat represented the informant. It showed that this person once betrayed the gang and leak the wind to police.
Usually, when such a person was discovered by the organization, he would be tattooed the goat.
he was not too good in prison.
 
【Skull】
Representing murder


【dagger】
A dagger pierced through the neck meant he killed people in prison.
 
he'd like to be a hired killer and continued to help kill people in prison.
 

So The more tattoos on the body, the richer experience of this prisoner.you'd better be far away from them.