vor v zakony

Sometimes a movie will come out that has within it some piece of culture that was before unknown to most of us. Donnie Brasco taught us the difference between a "friend of mine" and a "friend of ours". The Godfather taught us what it meant to "sleep with the fishes". Eastern Promises gives us some knowledge of the Russian Mafia, and the way it operates. But the real peek at a different culture comes through in the tattoos.

I'd like to say that I knew about Russian criminal tattoos this whole time, but I found out because of Eastern Promises. The Russian criminal tattoo is a language that exists within the Russian prison system. Not everyone who has tattoos are in the mafia, but all mafia have the tattoos. Much like hieroglyphics, the criminal tattoo is informative only to those who know what they're looking for. The basic symbols that reappear in these tattoos are stars, card suits, epaulettes, spiders/spider webs, cats, eyes, etc. Depending on what symbols the tattoo consists of and where the tattoo is on the body, the tattoo can mean anything from indication of rank among a gang to passive sexual status within the prison system. These latter types of tattoos are forcibly applied to the back or lower stomach area to indicate that the person is a passive homosexual or that he has welched on a debt or gone against the thieves code.

It would take too long to go into all the variations and meanings, but in Eastern Promises there is a scene wherein Viggo Mortensen's character, Nikolai, stands before a jury of elders and has his tattoos examined and translated. It is very much like your boss reading your resume. The jury looks at the number of turrets in the cathedral tattoo on Nikolai's back and determines how many prison sentences he's endured. They see the cat tattoo on his arm and know he is a respected thief. ("Thief" doesn't necessarily mean "robber" in this circumstance. It is just a word meaning "gangster".)

Nikolai has empty space on his knees and above his chest so that he may one day receive the tattoos denoting a high ranking within the thieves underground. Stars on the knees and chest mean that there isn't anyone who can tell this guy what to do, and that he kneels to nobody. The scene is really amazing, and you truly feel like you're a fly on the wall of some top secret meeting. In truth, these tattoos aren't used much anymore, but they still exist. The book I have at home, Russian Criminal Tattoos Vol. 2, details accounts of people getting new tattoos in the early 2000's and late 1990's, so it hasn't completely gone out of style. It's interesting to me to think about getting my driver's license and going to high school in 1996, while in Siberia this guy was getting his fake tattoos cut out of his skin by fellow inmates. Oh by the way, tattoos that you have that aren't earned are deeply frowned upon, by which I mean you might get killed if you're found to have tattoos that you don't deserve.

These days practically everyone has a tattoo. But the tattoos you see of Chinese characters on 15 year old girls' backs weren't applied by some degenerate inmate's hand, nor were they inked from a mixture of shaved boot heel and urine. Also I'd assume the tattoos you see every day were applied with a high-quality needle, instead of an old metal guitar string attached to an electrical razor. Learning about Russian criminal tattoos is like discovering another planet. It's a fascinating piece of culture to immerse yourself in.