Mauvais Garçons: Portraits de Tatoués: Review for FoRMATS

Manufacture de Livres is an independent publishing house that explores criminal themes within the French and international crime circuit. Their new publication, Mauvais Garçons: Portraits de Tatoués, surveys an archive of over 175 beautifully composed photographs depicting the tattooed underworld active in France between 1890-1930. This photographic record consists of over 2,400 tattoos copied mostly from inmates of the French penal military units serving in North Africa.

In this bilingual edition, photographic spreads are accompanied by written interpretations of common symbols and themes inked on the men’s bodies, acting as a guide towards understanding criminal underworld codes of expression. Often though the inmates’ tattoos are so crowded readers will find themselves studying a 'clip art'-esque landscape of motifs in search of the symbol being referenced. Expressions such as tout me fait rire (everything makes me laugh) spread the length of chests, while seemingly obscene drawings of erotic positions and wild animals occupy navels. 

Although the archive exists as a system of identification meant to assist the French authorities in anticipating criminal behaviour, Mauvais Garçons reviews the flesh of these inmates as an extensive library of symbols that functioned as a language of identification and status within the underworld.

Originally published on FoRMATS Facebook page: November 18th, 2013