70’s and 80’s Polish criminal tattoos as a visual message in comparison to ignorant, trash and primitive style tattoo

Abstract

This study shows what a tattoo is in general, how the approach to tattooing has changed over the millennia. It also describes the world of Polish criminal tattoo from 1970s and 1980s. It shows why convicts decide on having tattoos, the categories into which one can divide a prison tattoo, methods of tattooing in prison, tattooing equipment used by those sentenced to imprisonment. The paper also includes an interview that was conducted with Maurycy Gomulicki, a remarkable artists who is the creator of the “Dziary” exhibition about the criminal tattoo from the 1970s. The work shows how the criminal tattoo influenced Polish culture, what types of tattoos were fashionable in those days. It presents new definitions of styles of tattoo nowadays, which are: primitive, ignorant, and trash tattoo, which are a result of the observation of the author and observations of people who have tattoos, with whom interviews were also conducted. Then it shows how contemporary tattoos resemble criminal ones, and in ways they are different. At the end, the meaning of criminal tattoo in comparison to nowadays’ tattoo is presented. The findings of this study will be of great help for those who wish to tattoo their bodies and are not aware of the symbols and messages behind them.