Russian Prison Tattoos - The Brutal Truth ???

Most people associate Russian Mafia Tattoos award-winning David Cronenberg film "Eastern Promises," in which Viggo Mortensen portrays a pilot ex-con turned to a Russian mafia boss, his way up the chain of command to find only that there is more corruption and deceit, that he lived within the walls of the prison.

Her story touches only the surface ...

In fact, the story behind the Russian criminal underground has produced a generation of men who, because of the economic collapse of the Soviet Union was left with nothing - is to crime as a means of survival. When communism fell, and the safety net was removed, much despair ended with a Russian prison camps, also known as the Soviet gulag, now known as one of the systems the most infamous prison and hell in the story. It is in these camps, a new breed of professional criminals is born. A criminal network, based on discipline, tradition and, more importantly, rank.

Russian Mafia Tattoos is a report ...

As these networks of experienced Russian criminals began to settle on both sides of prison walls, they would tattoo religious and neo-Nazi symbols on the whole body as a form of peer recognition from their peers, but also as a way to live with their sins. It was not uncommon for Russian Mafia Tattoos to be heavily inked on a person who was considered unreliable, or a person who was a pedophile or a rapist - who strongly oppose the religious connotation of that time.

Common symbols and their meanings ...

At first glance most of these tattoos are religious images, such as cathedrals or monasteries, but the Russian mafia has started to migrate to New York, Philadelphia and Florida, between 1970 and 1990, U.S. authorities and secret services have begun to decipher the code found under the brands of worship. They realized that not only had a tattoo behind Russian Mafia, but these criminals, literally, the use of these symbols as a business card in the other, and most importantly, the sins they have committed .

The Cathedral and the Church - especially the towers, depending on the tattoo, usually refers to a number of years, or the number of times the person was imprisoned.

Cobweb - generally referred to a person who has committed murder.

Cat or cats - If there is a simple tattoo of a cat, this means that the individual was a thief, before being imprisoned. If you have multiple cats, this means that the individual was part of a gang of thieves.

Stars - This appears to be the most famous tattoo in the traditional media. If the owner has stars on each knee, then it will never bow down or never be brought to its knees. Stars on the shoulders is usually given when an individual has attained the status of a criminal or senior in the network - as a captain. Different types of stars mean different things.

What is even more frightening and sad is that in Russia today, it is estimated that 70% of the upper layers of society, politics and law enforcement is controlled by the Russian mafia and families of criminal networks. It is said that the same percentage of banks are also run by the mob in Russia. The fall of communism was a powerful and formidable competitor for a country so corrupt that it is the highest offices are proceeds of crime. It is common in communities of people to associate with criminal organizations of the Italian mafia, but the reality is that if you ask someone who knows nothing about this, they will tell you that compared to the Mafia Russian, Italian crime families are Pre-School - There is no comparison.