Russian criminal tattoos

Specifically among those imprisoned under the Gulag system of the Soviet era, the tattoos served to differentiate a criminal leader or thief in law from a political prisoner.

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 "BOP" (thief), the letters on the forehead and cheeks.

[1] 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.

In Russian criminal jargon or Fenya (феня), a full set of tattoos is known as frak s ordenami (a tailcoat with decorations).

[7][8] 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".

Many convicts had fought in penal units, in contravention of the thieves' code that no thief should serve in the military or cooperate with authorities in any way.

Many legitimate thieves found themselves demoted to frayer (outsider), muzhik (мужик, peasant), or suka (сука, traitor, bitch).

This was part of a power struggle; with limited resources in prison, outlawing the "bitches" (suki) allowed the legitimate thieves to take more for themselves.

The dagger piercing a heart was modified, adding an arrow: this tattoo indicated a legitimate thief and his desire to seek vengeance against those who had violated the thieves' code.

As a response to this persecution, the thieves' laws were intensified and the punishment for prisoners wearing unearned tattoos increased from removal to rape and murder.

These can be applied to those convicted of sexual crimes, those who have not paid a debt, stool pigeons (ssuchenye), stooges (chukhany), and signify that the owner is expelled from the privileged section of a thieves society and are "untouchables" (neprikasaemye/chushki).