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Product Description
David Cronenberg. Director, Eastern Promises (2007)
This completely mind-blowing book told us what the tattoos meant, and how they could become central to the movie.
Product Description
The second volume of the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia contains completely new drawings, text and photographs from Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev. During his fifty years working as a prison guard in St Petersburgs notorious Kresty Prison, Baldaev diligently recorded over 3,000 criminal tattoos, documenting their meanings within this closed society. This volume further explores the extremes of this incredible collection. Published 3rd July 2006, reprinted in 2011.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book cracks open a whole world that there really isn't an equivalent of elsewhere. It's a collection of photos and illustrations of prison tattos from soviet detention centres and an explaination of the iconic codes used in the images.
The illustrations are beautifully coppied with a hard and menacing style (if you're interested in cartooning, this book is a MUST) and it would be easy to forget to give credit to the illustrator because they are copies but you don't feel the same unity with the photos and it's the style that make the illustrations, with the often appauling interpretations so striking. There is a substantial introduction and a terrifying map of the Soviet Union covered in dots representing prison camps but most of what makes the book so exciting is the anecdotal chunks of information that accompany the illustrations that creates a world squalid and separate from anything in the outside world but as brutally structured with it's hierarchys and rules, illustrated by the tattoos.
In the west, the Soviet Union loomed large as a mysterious bogeyman until it began to collapse and now it's hard to sort out what was US propaganda to the point where it's almost forgotten as a concept in the west. This book, created from within the prison camps at that time is a living account of the most extreme aspect of that regime and also a study of political and antisocial defiance to that system from the hardest members of that society and is an immediate and metaphorical account in the form of these images.
In the west there was always the notion that Student protests and teenage rebellion couldn't happen where there was no freedom but put quiffs, long hair and rock n roll, against a subculture drawing Lenin over their hearts in the hopes that a firing squad wont shoot the picture, where obscene sex scenes involving devils and political figures are worn on the skin because it can't be confiscated and this brutal society turns western ideas of being rebelious and defiant on their heads.
Please reprint Volume One again.
The illustrations are beautifully coppied with a hard and menacing style (if you're interested in cartooning, this book is a MUST) and it would be easy to forget to give credit to the illustrator because they are copies but you don't feel the same unity with the photos and it's the style that make the illustrations, with the often appauling interpretations so striking. There is a substantial introduction and a terrifying map of the Soviet Union covered in dots representing prison camps but most of what makes the book so exciting is the anecdotal chunks of information that accompany the illustrations that creates a world squalid and separate from anything in the outside world but as brutally structured with it's hierarchys and rules, illustrated by the tattoos.
In the west, the Soviet Union loomed large as a mysterious bogeyman until it began to collapse and now it's hard to sort out what was US propaganda to the point where it's almost forgotten as a concept in the west. This book, created from within the prison camps at that time is a living account of the most extreme aspect of that regime and also a study of political and antisocial defiance to that system from the hardest members of that society and is an immediate and metaphorical account in the form of these images.
In the west there was always the notion that Student protests and teenage rebellion couldn't happen where there was no freedom but put quiffs, long hair and rock n roll, against a subculture drawing Lenin over their hearts in the hopes that a firing squad wont shoot the picture, where obscene sex scenes involving devils and political figures are worn on the skin because it can't be confiscated and this brutal society turns western ideas of being rebelious and defiant on their heads.
Please reprint Volume One again.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having stumbled across this book & its author through the film Eastern Promise I have been totally captivated by the detail and insight that it gives to a world and life style of a time gone by but still very much alive.
I've just purchased volume 3 which I currently have sat on my bedside table to read but having so far enjoyed volume 2 so much I think I will be giving this a read again before venturing into the third volume.
I cannot rate this book high enough, though this is on its way out of print quicker than any book I've read before and is a testiment to the author who has spent an entire life documenting such an interesting and very much overlooked topic of communist russia.
Worth every single penny.... and then some!
I've just purchased volume 3 which I currently have sat on my bedside table to read but having so far enjoyed volume 2 so much I think I will be giving this a read again before venturing into the third volume.
I cannot rate this book high enough, though this is on its way out of print quicker than any book I've read before and is a testiment to the author who has spent an entire life documenting such an interesting and very much overlooked topic of communist russia.
Worth every single penny.... and then some!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Wow!
10 April 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent photos and artwork with clear, concise explanations. An excellent collector's item, but not really a suggested "coffee table" book. There's quite a bit of nudity, graphic political and sexual imagery, and one heaping dose of harsh reality.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Imagine having your professional life story, including your misdeeds, tattooed on your body...
30 Aug 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
and you'll begin to get an idea of the contents of this amazing book. The "Vory v zakone" (literally "thieves in law")are Russia's criminal underworld and their existence dates back to the days of Tsarist prisons. They have their own elaborate set of laws, their own culture, and each thief's professional resume is tattooed on his body.
The author of this book, a former Russian prison guard, spent years documenting these tattoos and unraveling their meanings, and in the process has created a fascinating cultural history. Be forewarned, however, these tattoos are not like anything you've probably ever seen before, even in the American prison system. Many of them are quite shocking in their sexual detail and depiction of violence. Some of these tattoos were forcibly applied to the wearers' bodies, as punishment for reneging on gambling debts, serving as an informant, or other infractions of the thieves' code. This is not a book you'll want to let your kids get ahold of, as most of the "art" depicted is quite repellent. But it's a glimpse into a world most people didn't even know existed until the arrival of the Russian mob in the US and the release of movies like "Eastern Promises."
From my perspective, I'm glad that most of the tattoos are drawings, not photographs. It makes it easier to see some of the fine details in the tattoos. If you have an interest in crime and the criminal underworld, this book makes for a fascinating read.
The author of this book, a former Russian prison guard, spent years documenting these tattoos and unraveling their meanings, and in the process has created a fascinating cultural history. Be forewarned, however, these tattoos are not like anything you've probably ever seen before, even in the American prison system. Many of them are quite shocking in their sexual detail and depiction of violence. Some of these tattoos were forcibly applied to the wearers' bodies, as punishment for reneging on gambling debts, serving as an informant, or other infractions of the thieves' code. This is not a book you'll want to let your kids get ahold of, as most of the "art" depicted is quite repellent. But it's a glimpse into a world most people didn't even know existed until the arrival of the Russian mob in the US and the release of movies like "Eastern Promises."
From my perspective, I'm glad that most of the tattoos are drawings, not photographs. It makes it easier to see some of the fine details in the tattoos. If you have an interest in crime and the criminal underworld, this book makes for a fascinating read.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The real deal
29 May 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the real deal. Filled with illustrations of tattoos and their meanings. This is not a fluffy book with happy hearts and tribal motifs. It is gritty, nasty, often explicit tattoos from the prisons in Russia.
As a tattooed guy who spends a lot of time over there, it is also a valuable reference.
My only regret is that there aren't more photos. Much of the book is drawings ... good ones... but I would like to see a lot more photographs of the people.
Perhaps I will just have to buy one of his other books
As a tattooed guy who spends a lot of time over there, it is also a valuable reference.
My only regret is that there aren't more photos. Much of the book is drawings ... good ones... but I would like to see a lot more photographs of the people.
Perhaps I will just have to buy one of his other books
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