Inside Russian Prisons.

Inside Russian prisons a person may be forcibly tattood as a form of punishment, eg - unpaid debts for card games, or otherwise breaking the criminal code, and often have blatant sexual images, much to the embarrassment of the wearer. The victim, however, still has to pay the tattooist for his work.

Tattoos on the forehead are quite often forcibly applied and designed to both humiliate the bearer and be a warning to others about him/her. The tattoo can indicate whether that person is a member of a political group considered offensive by the other prisoners, or has been convicted for a vile crime such as child rape, which is not approved of by other convicts.

Tattoos that consist of political or anti-authoritarian statements are known as Grins. They are often tattood on the stomach of a vor v zakone, as a means of aquiring status in the criminal community. A Russian criminologist Yuri Dubyagin, has claimed that, during the soviet era there existed 'secret orders' that any anit-government tattoos must be removed and that this procedure was usually fatal. Consequently, such tattoos were also sometimes applied forcibly to the back of a violator of the "thieves code", as punishment.(Meaning also certain death)

The ink needed to do the tattoo was usually made of the soot created when burning the heel of a shoe, this was then mixed with urine. The skin was then injected by using a sharpened guitar string and attached to an electric shaver. - How Horrid is That