The Tig

This came across my newsfeed today. Poked around and didn't immediately find it, so posting here! Pic captions are taken directly from the article.
THE VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN PRISON TATTOOS

A snake around the neck is a sign of drug addiction.

This inmate is not an authoritative thief, but has tried to imitate them with his tattoos to increase his standing within the prison. The lighthouse on his right arm denotes a pursuit of freedom. Each wrist manacle indicates a sentence of more than five years.

The eight-pointed stars on this inmate’s shoulders indicate that he's a criminal.

This prisoner is one of many who contracted syphilis, AIDS, or tetanus while being tattooed in unsanitary conditions. (GNARLY!)

The devils on this inmate's shoulders symbolize a hatred of authority and the prison structure. This type of tattoo is known as an oskal (grin), a baring of teeth towards the system.

A dagger through the neck indicates that a criminal has murdered someone in prison and is available to hire for further hits. The drops of blood can signify the number of murders committed.

The skull and crossbones on the prisoner's shoulders indicate that he's serving a life sentence, and the girl "catching" her dress with a fishing line on his left forearm is a tattoo commonly linked to rapists.

My dad's forearms. Pictures taken last week. My dad was 16 or 17 when he got these in 1970/71. Done by Bob 'Eagle' Smith in Oxford, England. It says 'mum' and 'dad' in the banners.

From the 1920's

on my Uncle-in-Law. artist unknown but done on Market St in 1955:

Classic Ron Ackers .

What a great thread! Can't believe I've only just found it! Some of the unnamed tattooed ladies I can help with, I think.
The others I have to go back for - didn't show the photos in my multi-quote attempt... So much fascinating stuff - can't possibly thank everyone individually - this post shall be way to long as it is :o
But, yes.
She's one of the few I've not been able to track down a name for. The whole look and feel of the photo suggests she might be a private individual rather than a circus girl - the setting looks rather aristocratic to me. No other photos of her to be found either, also reasonably unusual.
Tell me about it! <grr>
Huzzah! I've been trying to find out her name for an age - she's one of my references so felt a bit of a prat for not knowing. Another shot of her here:

Oh that's fascinating. Thanks for sharing! I found these online, so you've probably seen them already. Still nice to look at though.
http://earwigbiscuits.tumblr.com/image/1203712082
A painting: Edith by George Burchett, c.1900. Oil on canvas on board (Collection of Lyle Tuttle)
http://earwigbiscuits.tumblr.com/image/1203732354
Tattoo flash by George Burchett, c.1900 (Collection of Lyle Tuttle)


I have a sneaky suspicion that Madiah Surith was tattooed by him, no proof at all though! Her work is a lot like Edith's though.
I really love the spiderweb flash. Just my bag.
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Madiah Surith
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Oh heck, the tread didn't seen quite so long while I was reading it. I remember Maud Wagner (wife of Gus Wagner) being linked twice but not named. All I know is that Gus taught her to tattoo (in trade for a date, they say) and that she was also an aerialist and contortionist in a circus. Here she is:

Other than that, if any one is interested, I have a good few tattooed ladies with names saved that I can post up. Not so much success on finding out who tattooed them though, I'm afraid. I've do have a good series of Jean Furella Carroll, tattooed by Charlie Wagner, taken a several points in her life. Just stuff from online but I've not found it in one place yet.

I was down in Ocean City, Maryland last week and picked up the two pictures attached. Apparently they date back to the 40s from a photographer named A. Aubrey Bodine, based out of Baltimore. I don't know much more about them, but I thought they were pretty cool.
Edit: Not sure why the one posted sideways. Sorry.

awesome.

I'm not sure if this is considered old- I kind of hope it's not, because that makes me old(er), but another tattooed influence from my preteen metal days:

Seems that Photobucket doesn't like some of thse old pix I've been putting up, don't know if someone complained, or they just have some old bluenose that sniffs through everyone's stuff to find a pic of a nipple, but anyhow, here are retouched pix to replace those that have been, or may be, taken down by PB. Sorry if they make some duplicates, but if they are still there in a few weeks, or whenever, hey, take 'em down!

A few more...


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I know it's Frazetta based, but I could see someone like Brooks, Hundahl or Lehi updating this:

Reference (adding the snake would've kicked ass):

Ha-Google is my friend. Hundahl viking tattoo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/headovmetal/3604128128
http://www.flickr.com/photos/headovmetal/3603329651

Painless Tryon by Gus Wagner:

Tommy Stephens by Bert Grimm:

Unknown:

Doc Webb, San Diego 1964

More older tattoo photos that were sent my way.....

Anytime I see someone with an old tattoo, I ask to see it, and talk to them about the background of that tattoo.
I'm working on documenting old prison and homemade tattoos in Los Angeles.

My earlier reply got attached to the wrong post. Take 2:
Thanks, it turned out pretty cool. Her nose is a little long and the foot looks a bit wonky (Japanese style?).
I'll get a photo of the right side to show how he used negative space between this and ol' Tigger (you can see his ear at the upper right).

How about Saturday the 14th? :p (that was a cheesy farce movie, right?)
Since I can never open the "Latest tattoo lowdown" thread on any PC or with any browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) I'll have to post my Saturday tattoo here.
Bomber nose art pinups have always been really cool looking to me. I had Waylon Hart create one for me and he did even more than I expected with her Japanese leg sleeve, plus the clouds and lightning.
One day old between changing the wrapping. Her skin colors will soften after healing.

pretty cool ! I love it,placement is perfect too.

this past friday by Matt Dunn @ Old Glory in Asbury Park NJ

How about Saturday the 14th? :p (that was a cheesy farce movie, right?)
Since I can never open the "Latest tattoo lowdown" thread on any PC or with any browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) I'll have to post my Saturday tattoo here.
Bomber nose art pinups have always been really cool looking to me. I had Waylon Hart create one for me and he did even more than I expected with her Japanese leg sleeve, plus the clouds and lightning.
One day old between changing the wrapping. Her skin colors will soften after healing.

@The Tig Congrats.....That's a beaut!

I wanted to share my experience with using Saniderm (8"x11 yd. roll) while healing the tattoo shown above.
I got the tattoo on Saturday, finishing up on Saturday evening. The artist cleaned the area and applied the Saniderm at the shop. We used a piece on each shoulder, a piece in the middle and one piece on each side to connect the shoulder and middle areas. There were also cuts made to accommodate the curves of the skin in the middle of my chest. I left this bandage until Sunday evening (a little over 24 hours). There was some ink leakage. I immediately noticed that I barely felt any pain on Saturday night. Normally, I am sore in the tattooed area for about 30-36 hours after it is finished. I removed the first bandage in the shower. It was full of ink and came off as easier than I expected under warm running water.
I placed the second bandage on after I got out of the shower and patted the tattoo dry. I didn't use any ointments or moisturizers. Monday, I felt great. Tuesday, I started to notice a smell (like the beginning of mildew growth) and also started to itch under the bandage. Wednesday, I tried to take extra care to pat the bandage dry once I got out of the shower. The scent was still there, but not quite as strong as the day before. The itching was getting worse, however. Thursday morning, I removed the bandage in the shower under running water. This hurt a bit more than the Sunday removal hurt, but it wasn't a high level of pain. There had been a small amount of ink leakage just about every day for the second bandage.
I went on to use Hustle Butter three times on Thursday. I noticed around five small areas of peeling, but that was it. I feel some raised/somewhat hard areas in the outline of the flowers on my shoulders, but this is in line with what I normally feel on healing tattoos except when using normal methods, the raised areas are throughout the majority of the tattoo. I haven't had the flaking that I normally have during healing, so I think that I have skipped that stage. I have also noticed a rash (several bumps) in the middle of my chest. I hope that this heals soon!
It is Friday now and I am still using Hustle Butter on the tattoo. I normally don't itch when I use Hustle Butter and don't use numbing gel during the tattoo. However, I do have some itching even after I removed the bandage and started the Hustle Butter routine.
Overall, my pros would be that there was much less pain after the tattoo was over (big pro), I didn't have to tend to the tattoo throughout the first four days, and I didn't have to worry about ink stains on clothes. The cons would be the smell, the itch, the rash and how hard it is to get the edges to stay down on areas that bend or curve.
I plan to try Tegaderm next time. I have the 4"x4" sheets of this already. Depending on how the rash heals, I may try Saniderm again if I don't see much of a difference between Tegaderm and Saniderm. Even with the cons, so far I think that this is better than what I was doing before.

How about Saturday the 14th? :p (that was a cheesy farce movie, right?)
Since I can never open the "Latest tattoo lowdown" thread on any PC or with any browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) I'll have to post my Saturday tattoo here.
Bomber nose art pinups have always been really cool looking to me. I had Waylon Hart create one for me and he did even more than I expected with her Japanese leg sleeve, plus the clouds and lightning.
One day old between changing the wrapping. Her skin colors will soften after healing.

Hello and welcome!