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During the 20th century in the Soviet Union there was a strong culture of tattoos being used to indicate one's criminal career and rank within Russian criminal and prison communities. Specifically for those imprisoned under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, the tattoos served to differentiate between who was an authority or thief in law, and who was a political prisoner. The practice grew in the 1930s, peaking in the 1950s and declining in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.〔 == Origins == The branding of criminals was practised in Russia long before tattooing was customary, and was banned in 1863. In the 19th century, a "pricked" cross on the left hand was often used to identify deserters from the army, and up until 1846, criminals sentenced to hard labour were branded "VOR" (''thief''), the letters on the forehead and cheeks. Brands were also applied to the shoulder blade and the right forearm, in three categories; "SK" for ''Ssylno-Katorzhny'' (hard labour convict), "SP" for ''Ssylno-Poselenets'' (hard labour deportee) and "B" for ''Begly'' (escapee). In 1846, VOR was replaced by "KAT"; the first three letters of the word for "hard labour convict" or ''katorzhnik''. In the 1930s, Russian criminal castes began to emerge, such as the ''Masti'' (suits) and the ''Vory v Zakone'' or ''Blatnye'' (authoritative thieves), and with that a tattoo culture to define rank and reputation. Up until World War II, any tattoo could denote a professional criminal, the only exception being tattoos on sailors.〔 Under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, laws that were implemented in mid-1940 allowed short prison sentences to be given to those convicted of petty theft, hooliganism, or labor discipline infractions. This led to an increase in the prison population during and after World War II. By January 1941, the Gulag workforce had increased by approximately 300,000 prisoners. Tattoos served to differentiate between an authority or "thief in law", and the many hundreds of thousands of political prisoners who were imprisoned during and shortly after World War Two for crimes not considered those of a "Vor" (thief).〔 Some of the motifs came from English sailor tattoos, such as the flying tall ships, a heart pierced by a dagger, anchors, a serpent-entwined heart or a tiger baring its teeth. A thief's collection of tattoos represents his "suit" (''mast''), which indicates his status within the community of thieves and his control over other thieves within the thieves' law. In Russian criminal jargon or ''Fenya'' (феня), a full set of tattoos is known as ''frak s ordenami'' (a tailcoat with decorations). The tattoos show a "service record" of achievements and failures, prison sentences and the type of work a criminal does. They might also represent his "thief's family", naming others within hearts or with the traditional tomcat image. Misappropriation of the tattoos of a "legitimate thief" could be punished by death, or the prisoner would be forced to remove them themselves "with a knife, sandpaper, a shard of glass or a lump of brick". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Russian criminal tattoos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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