Something a little different this week. Usually I’d want to foist upon you the words and stories I consume in your traditional ‘reading’ way…you know. Chapter books. I reed and have red (my typo) a shit ton of fiction and nonfiction, for sure, but this week marked a special delivery for me, and I wanted to share.

The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia (3 volumes, published by Fuel Publishing) is superb. Absolutely superb. If you read this blog, are into these clothes, and/or are into the types of artwork and subculture that get discussed here, then these books are for you. They are beautifully put together, painstakingly researched, and editorialized in such a way that makes them easy and ‘fun’ to read. You can literally open to any page and start reading about the very real and very grim history of, well, the tattoos of Russian Criminals.

These are not just bound collections of tattoo flash and photographs; there is a narrative thread running throughout that explores the significance of the Russian criminal society’s use of tattoos for identification with (and against) each other, as well as the Russian government and prison system’s use of them for, well, the same thing. Any aspiring tattooist, pop-culture pundit, t-shirt designer, and/or dorky dude who likes ‘important’ books on his shelf (me) is SURE to be all over these.

So here’s the bummer: the original edition of Vol. 1 is long gone. They’ve reprinted it, so that’s at least good. Vol. 2 is out there, but a ton of money. Vol. 3 just came out a few months ago, and so is easy to get. For the true enthusiast, you can grab all three in a set, but again, serious money. Just sayin’.

BONUS: When I received my last installment (Vol. 3), it was very nonchalantly wrapped in brown paper and a cardboard sleeve. No biggie. After unwrapping things and (quite accidentally) not ripping the cardboard to shreds, I noticed that the inside was printed with a fascinating excerpt from author Richard Preston. Does anybody know which of his books the following is quoted from? It is…amazing. My kind of media mailer.:

The fact of the matter, if you ask me, in my humble opinion, in all honesty, is this: you only see what they want you to, because there’s a load of vested interest and that’s the way the game’s played–winner takes all, no prisoners. No names, no pack drill, no quarter given, no questions asked, all stitched up nice and quietly at one of those meetings in a Swiss log cabin where they fly in by helicopter and carve it up between them. And look at us: the proof is we’re all sitting in the dark about it, whistling in the wind, like pigs in a poke without a rudder to stand on. What you’ve got to remember, in the end, is that they don’t want you to know the whole story…What do you mean, how do I know?

More photos and samples after the jump. Seriously: I like some wacky shit, but these books are one of those rare things you find and can just ‘feel’ the realness of them. They will stand the test of time, and are a prodigious document of history.

- Hateball