Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Criminal Code

"The tattoo collection at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland consists of 60 objects preserved in formaldehyde - tattoos collected from prisoners of a nearby state penitentiary at the turn of the 20th century.

The majority of the prison tattoos represent connections between convicts. The collection was created with a view to deciphering the code – among prisoners known as a 'pattern language'. By looking closely at the prisoners' tattoos, their traits, temper, past, place of residence or the criminal group in which they were involved could be determined."





3 comments:

Savile Joe said...

I'm looking into getting my first tattoo at the moment, so love reading up about them. This is a real interesting post mate, didn't even realise you could preserve skin like that, let alone the ink on it.
Not sure I'll be going for anything like the top image, might not go down too well with my Mrs!

hotpinksox said...

This is so creepy and cool at the same time. thanks for sharing.

toxomaman said...

there is supposedly a woman in germany who will make a lampshade from human tattoed skin.

 
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