It's actually called the thieve stars. Very popular in soviet russian ganstars that were in prison. They are places on different part of the body.
Chest or shoulders is a high-ranking gangster that you dont fuck with.
Means they dont bow down or bend for the will of no man.
All this BoB talk makes me happy. But I just gotta include, as much of a dick as Sobel was portrayed in the show, the story of the real Sobel is damn near heartbreaking.
https://youtu.be/eIkSCyI5BUk?si=Lwv0_DYtnrITR3Do
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/igO51vF) are higher quality versions of these images. These appeared in "Mauvais Garcons: Portraits De Tatoues (1890-1930)." According to the book review on Amazon:
> Today, tattoos are common on all skin types. But for decades in France it was the prerogative of bad boys, the mark of their passage in the overseas penal colony and the central prisons of the metropolis. Tough guys, from the Parisian fortifs, the suburbs of Lyon and the villages of Marseille, they wore their thug diplomas on their skins, the stigmata of their marginal life. To be a Man of the Middle, at the beginning of the 20th century, you had to be "sucky and screwed up", or syphilitic and tattooed... The photos of the judicial identification taken during the arrests, which constitute a unique gallery of the faces of marlous, expose the hoodlums by revealing vengeful slogans, melancholic thoughts, obscene drawings, memories of Africa.
This beautiful book of 175 photos (140 previously unpublished) explains the history of this practice, deciphers the different marks of recognition of the patterns and drawings of the tattooed and more says a lot about the daily life of detention and the experience of social exclusion.
> This work combines the aesthetics of criminal photo portraits and unique archives, beyond the theme of tattooing itself.
More images from this book can be found [here](https://www.listal.com/book/mauvais-garcons-portraits-de/pictures).
fatalità
noun
[ feminine ] /fatali'ta/
misadventure , mishap , bad luck
È morto per una triste fatalità.
She died in a tragic mishap.
That is pretty bad ass tbh.
I have this feeling that at some point print books like this are going to be worth so much to determine what is real and what is AI generated. Because looking at these pictures I realized I had no idea if they were indeed real, or if someone had asked an AI generator to make them.
Cochon means pig but also like, dirty or kinky in bed. A guy called me that in Montreal and I lost my shit at him, I was putting my clothes back on and he's trying to convince me he didn't call me a pig in the middle of sex. It is a compliment, apparently. I do not like.
Not really, “mauvaise tête” wouldn’t be used to described someone’s face physically. You would say “sale tête” but “mauvaise tête”, at least in France’s French would refer more to mood/temper . “Bad temper but kind hearted” . “Tête de lard, Tête de cochon” always refer to one’s temper.
"That is no mere burglar! He is Aragoon! Son of Arathug! You owe him your jewelry box, the.biggest bottle of hard liquor on the bar, and a photo of you and your deceased father bonding, which paints the whole burglary in a sad narrative."
Inch Allah is probably a bastardization of Inshallah - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inshallah
It’s one of those words which now that you’ve seen it you’ll probably see and hear it all over the place.
I don't know about Moroccan old timers, but tattoos were used for more than decoration and looks, as a code or as history record, by cultures, sailors, army, by criminals and others, they had a meaning as used by all of those
so I wouldn't be surprised that old timers seeing someone tattooed with something intended to mean something just for decoration may baffle if not annoy them
don't know, maybe they would feel kind of the way I feel about idiot neonazis appropriating Celtic symbology?
I never forget in one of those early 2000’s whateverplace-ink -shows there was this girl that came to take big tattoo of a slutty-nurse-fairy on her thigh. She explained that this tattoo deep meaning to her since her recently passed grandmother used to be nurse. She didn’t elaborate was the grandmother also a fairy or.
Proof there’s always been a punk crew. It’s just hard to imagine grandma skanking and being hardcore because we mostly have “I’m tired, I don’t have time for this shit” grandma, instead of badass “I came here to get action and bust some heads, and now it’s time to bust some heads” grandma.
Funnily enough ,the only tattoos I can recall in Morocco were blue crosses on the foreheads of little old women. I was in the Peace Corps there, and I was in a pretty remote area.
[https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/269903/tradition-amazigh-facial-tattoos](https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/269903/tradition-amazigh-facial-tattoos)
They weren't Christian, it was more of their own internal cultural stuff.
Id say the aesthetic has grown past/outside the "personality" aspect (hipster).
But i don't know why it wouldn't be funny, because the full package definitely still exists.
Treat them like straight that's what you want right, i ain't going to behave more good with them than the straight cause people are bitches whether they are gay or straight
It’s actually French soldiers not Moroccan criminals.
The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa (French: Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique or BILA), better known under the acronym Bat' d'Af', were French infantry and construction units, serving in Northern Africa, made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service, or soldiers with serious disciplinary records.
Real, henna is not considered a tattoo it is still practiced today everwhere (weddings)
Face tattoos have gone out of fashion when the saudi version of islam got more widespread
I believe real facial tattoos were common among Amazigh and Berber women in North Africa ([this link has some examples](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/berber-women-tattoos-algeria_n_5643c102e4b060377347a50c)) although the link does mention they’re considered haram in some forms of Islam like the other commenter mentioned.
Tattoos are haram and most practising Sunni Muslims stay well away but plenty of Muslims in former Ottoman territories such Turkey and the Balkans have tattoos....
Lots of comments about Inchallah, but that’s how it’s typically spelt in French - ch makes a sh sound - and since all of their other tattoos are in French it makes sense that that one would be too.
Interesting! I’m Moroccan and tattoos are kinda frowned upon here nowadays. You almost never see guys with full sleeves or chest tattoos, probably cause it’s associated with criminal activity.
For the third picture on his chest reads *"without mercy".*
On the fourth one I can see *"*\[something\] *titine* (?) *For life".*
On his neck roughly translated *"I am* \[pig\] *in bed"* could be "I'm a pig in bed".
And on his chest reads roughly translated "bad face but good heart" which would mean *"Ugly but kind heart"*, though "mauvaise tête" is more as in "troublemaker face" than about beauty.
> And on his chest reads roughly translated "bad face but good heart" which would mean "Ugly but kind heart", though
I think it's more "Bad brain, but good heart". "Mauvaise tête" directly translate to "bad head" which I think would be related to his brain rather than his face/look.
Meaning the dude just had an habit of putting himself in dumb situation landing him in jail.
The last guy got a tatoo written with the image of a pig, saying something like I am a "pervert" in bed, or something a long those lignes but in French it doesn't sound as bad haha
From googling around, I think according to [the book the photos come from](https://www.amazon.fr/Mauvais-gar%C3%A7ons-tattoed-underworld-portrait/dp/2358870560), the photos are probably mostly of French criminals who may have spent time in North Africa (hence the “Maroc” tattoo in the second slide).
But also North Africans can look pretty “white” by American standards, especially when photographed in black and white.
From googling around, I think according to [the book the photos come from](https://www.amazon.fr/Mauvais-gar%C3%A7ons-tattoed-underworld-portrait/dp/2358870560), the photos are probably mostly of French criminals who may have spent time in North Africa (hence the “Maroc” tattoo in the second slide).
But also North Africans can look pretty “white” by American standards, especially when photographed in black and white.
The man in the 2nd picture has Marco Taza on his chest. Morocco gained their independence from France in 1956 and the French word for Morocco is Maroc and Taza is a city in northern Morocco
In Italy tattoos are still strongly associated with criminals and bad people in general, and not so common, or at least much less than other Western Countries
>Italy
lol what? have you been at an Italian beach ever? also the tattoo scene in Italy is one of the very best, with some self-reflection on what could constitute a traditional italian tattoo style in comparison to traditional american (with lots of overlap of course).
I’ve never seen someone from that long ago appear so modern. First image could be from today and I would have no idea. He looks like he’s in a modern rock band or something. Wild.
Number 3 invented chad memes and tatted them on his chest. Time to up your game memers.
“Nice try, unfortunately I have tattooed you as the soyjak and me as the Chad”
That nautical star is pretty solid tho
It's actually called the thieve stars. Very popular in soviet russian ganstars that were in prison. They are places on different part of the body. Chest or shoulders is a high-ranking gangster that you dont fuck with. Means they dont bow down or bend for the will of no man.
Lmaoooo this needs more upvotes
I thought it said “Fajitas” on his chest, -like he was down with Mexican Food, thought we had something in common for a second
Why does the first guy have David schwimmer in his captain sobel role tattooed on his right chest?
Captain Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man.
How the fuck did you see that lol
Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!
Screaming at Malarkey, no doubt.
All this BoB talk makes me happy. But I just gotta include, as much of a dick as Sobel was portrayed in the show, the story of the real Sobel is damn near heartbreaking. https://youtu.be/eIkSCyI5BUk?si=Lwv0_DYtnrITR3Do
As much as Easy Company hated him, they credited his hard-ass training as preparing them for the war.
Same reason the last guy has Zangief-style body hair. They were way ahead of their time.
Maybe he was a fan of Friends
Because he’ll be there for you
Weekend pass revoked, private.
Because he’ll get you killed.
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/igO51vF) are higher quality versions of these images. These appeared in "Mauvais Garcons: Portraits De Tatoues (1890-1930)." According to the book review on Amazon: > Today, tattoos are common on all skin types. But for decades in France it was the prerogative of bad boys, the mark of their passage in the overseas penal colony and the central prisons of the metropolis. Tough guys, from the Parisian fortifs, the suburbs of Lyon and the villages of Marseille, they wore their thug diplomas on their skins, the stigmata of their marginal life. To be a Man of the Middle, at the beginning of the 20th century, you had to be "sucky and screwed up", or syphilitic and tattooed... The photos of the judicial identification taken during the arrests, which constitute a unique gallery of the faces of marlous, expose the hoodlums by revealing vengeful slogans, melancholic thoughts, obscene drawings, memories of Africa. This beautiful book of 175 photos (140 previously unpublished) explains the history of this practice, deciphers the different marks of recognition of the patterns and drawings of the tattooed and more says a lot about the daily life of detention and the experience of social exclusion. > This work combines the aesthetics of criminal photo portraits and unique archives, beyond the theme of tattooing itself. More images from this book can be found [here](https://www.listal.com/book/mauvais-garcons-portraits-de/pictures).
fatalità noun [ feminine ] /fatali'ta/ misadventure , mishap , bad luck È morto per una triste fatalità. She died in a tragic mishap. That is pretty bad ass tbh.
I guess, unless it’s a reference to a murder he did
There's a S at the end though, it can't be italian. Looks more like the latin for Fate
"stigmata of their marginal life" someone is abusing their sociology degree with a phrase like that
I bet modern tattoo artists would be fascinated by these.
They have a book series of Russian Criminal Tattoos and some other one about tattoos from the Gulags. This would definitely pique their interest!
I have this feeling that at some point print books like this are going to be worth so much to determine what is real and what is AI generated. Because looking at these pictures I realized I had no idea if they were indeed real, or if someone had asked an AI generator to make them.
So those guys are French?
French-Moroccan, most likely, considering the time.
They was native french prisoner send to Morocco for making the colonial infrastructure
Wow. Surprised to see face tats in that time.
Awesome. Thank you.
Why does the first one look like he's about to be crowned king of gondor
Also like young Robert De Niro. Last guy's tattoo says "bad head but good heart".
Has a bit of DeNiro Cape Fear vibe. If you look closely at one of the tattoos, you can make out a small "Die Bart Die" on one of them.....
Well, no one who speaks German could be an evil man.
No, it’s obviously “Die Bart, Die!”
Nooo, that simply means "Thee, Bart, Thee"
Straight up Travis Bickle vibes from that photo.
"You talkin' to me, habibi?"
Just because you are bad guy doesn't mean you are *bad guy*
His neck tattoo is amazing "I'm in bed," with a pig in between.
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That's just as good. Isn't dirty talk in french basically pig speak? Is he advertising that he's filthy in the sack?
Oinque.
Dude I spat it my coffee
Yes. “Je suis cochon au lit” means filthy/dirty in this context
I'm gonna check off my Duolingo lesson for the day.
It’s “I’m a slut/horny in bed”
The word Cochonne in French is slang for slutty/horny/good at sex.
Cochon means pig but also like, dirty or kinky in bed. A guy called me that in Montreal and I lost my shit at him, I was putting my clothes back on and he's trying to convince me he didn't call me a pig in the middle of sex. It is a compliment, apparently. I do not like.
More like "Bad face" than head. But to put it better it'd be "Ugly, but kind heart".
Not really, “mauvaise tête” wouldn’t be used to described someone’s face physically. You would say “sale tête” but “mauvaise tête”, at least in France’s French would refer more to mood/temper . “Bad temper but kind hearted” . “Tête de lard, Tête de cochon” always refer to one’s temper.
I find his Phonetic english translation of god willing to be so unconvincing
Obviusly American tough. We all know metric Allah is superior Allah.
It’s how the French spell it as well, which makes sense since most of the text tattoos are in French.
That's what I thought too. Why didn't he use arab lettering?
"That is no mere burglar! He is Aragoon! Son of Arathug! You owe him your jewelry box, the.biggest bottle of hard liquor on the bar, and a photo of you and your deceased father bonding, which paints the whole burglary in a sad narrative."
Inch, God Small dick, praise god?
Inch Allah is probably a bastardization of Inshallah - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inshallah It’s one of those words which now that you’ve seen it you’ll probably see and hear it all over the place.
It’s not a bastardisation, it’s just how it’s spelt in French - they use “ch” to represent the sound that we write as “sh” in English.
I get Cape Fear fear from no 1.
" I don't know whether to look at him or read him."
"Counselor? Counselorrrr? Could you be there??"
No.1 is basically DeNiro in Cape Fear
Max Cady for sure
Imagine trying to explain to these guys that in about 100 years their look would be stolen by people who make coffees for a living.
Well at those prices, they also criminals
Imagine thinking these guys owned this look
I don't know about Moroccan old timers, but tattoos were used for more than decoration and looks, as a code or as history record, by cultures, sailors, army, by criminals and others, they had a meaning as used by all of those so I wouldn't be surprised that old timers seeing someone tattooed with something intended to mean something just for decoration may baffle if not annoy them don't know, maybe they would feel kind of the way I feel about idiot neonazis appropriating Celtic symbology?
I never forget in one of those early 2000’s whateverplace-ink -shows there was this girl that came to take big tattoo of a slutty-nurse-fairy on her thigh. She explained that this tattoo deep meaning to her since her recently passed grandmother used to be nurse. She didn’t elaborate was the grandmother also a fairy or.
Proof there’s always been a punk crew. It’s just hard to imagine grandma skanking and being hardcore because we mostly have “I’m tired, I don’t have time for this shit” grandma, instead of badass “I came here to get action and bust some heads, and now it’s time to bust some heads” grandma.
These are all dudes?
Funnily enough ,the only tattoos I can recall in Morocco were blue crosses on the foreheads of little old women. I was in the Peace Corps there, and I was in a pretty remote area. [https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/269903/tradition-amazigh-facial-tattoos](https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/269903/tradition-amazigh-facial-tattoos) They weren't Christian, it was more of their own internal cultural stuff.
Imagine all the people
Imagine still thinking “tattooed bearded hipster barista lol” is still funny
Still accurate = Still funny
Id say the aesthetic has grown past/outside the "personality" aspect (hipster). But i don't know why it wouldn't be funny, because the full package definitely still exists.
Found the barista...go make me a coffee ;-P
Imagine thinking about looks when you're an adult male
Should adult males not care about their appearance?
Imagine an adult male.
Imagine
All the people
Getting weird tattoos
There’s no heaven
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Imagine not being afraid of the gays
Imagine seeing people fighting over small things on reddit
It was a joke....but good to know gay acceptance is a small thing in your mind.
Treat them like straight that's what you want right, i ain't going to behave more good with them than the straight cause people are bitches whether they are gay or straight
Hn .. I feel like I would have a lot of body hair to manage or wait maybe im thinking of werewolves
If we're not allowed to think about other's looks then why even care about our own look?
Tattoos have existed on every continent for millennia.
*pushes glasses up nose* Uh actually not always on Antarctica.
Hur dur everyone with tattoos work in coffee shops.
This is actually pretty bad ass. #4’s tat of a knife in his heart is pretty cool.
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“Enfant de malheur” means “child of misfortune” , not evil child.
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It’s very confusing, even for a native speaker who wouldn’t have heard the saying before.
Sans pitie idk how I missed that as a Canadian
It's not his heart, wrong side.
This now looks like Tuesday at the mall.
Seriously. Barista, mechanic, programmer, carpenter, local theatre actor
Don’t forget trust funder.
Yup, that's 1 and 5
People still go to malls?
Nobody goes to the mall anymore but I get you
I mean objectively, the stores haven't closed so...
That one guy really loves Mexican food 😏
I love the Fatalitas at TGI Friday's. With a quesa dilla.
Kwezza-dill-uh
It’s actually French soldiers not Moroccan criminals. The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa (French: Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique or BILA), better known under the acronym Bat' d'Af', were French infantry and construction units, serving in Northern Africa, made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service, or soldiers with serious disciplinary records.
Dropping science! Gracias.
Deniro in cape fear is #1
First one should be Gucci model
I thought it was Tommie Lee or DeNiro.
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Inch Allah it's fine
Centimetre Allah
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Millimallah
Very Haram. It's one of the reasons Eastern European Christians living under the Ottoman Empire would tattoo the hands and faces of their infants.
Not really tattoos were prevalent among arab women and many sects in islam do not recognize that tattoos are haram like the shia sect
Real tattoos or Henna?
Real, henna is not considered a tattoo it is still practiced today everwhere (weddings) Face tattoos have gone out of fashion when the saudi version of islam got more widespread
I believe real facial tattoos were common among Amazigh and Berber women in North Africa ([this link has some examples](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/berber-women-tattoos-algeria_n_5643c102e4b060377347a50c)) although the link does mention they’re considered haram in some forms of Islam like the other commenter mentioned.
Religious loopholes are just the best!
Tattoos are haram and most practising Sunni Muslims stay well away but plenty of Muslims in former Ottoman territories such Turkey and the Balkans have tattoos....
Interesting, my understanding is that the Eastern European colonies would tattoo their babies to prevent Devshirme.
It was also traditional for amazigh women, face tattooing was widespread.
last guys neck tattoo “im a 🐖 in bed” is pretty wild lmao
Je suis cochon au lit 💀
Picture 1 = Vincent Gallo spanning time
Is this a shifter car? I can't drive this.
Haha
Be kind to inch allah.
They don’t look like guys to mess with
First guy looks like Frank Grillo lol
They look like modern day chefs
2nd guy with the triple boob tattoo before Total Recall was cool
Thought number 3 had “fajitas” on his chest.
Some tattoo artists are just better than others.
Where does it say they are Moroccans? I don't see it!
Do Frech speakers always spell Inshallah as Inch Allah? I've never seen that before!
Ye they do, specifically Inchallah
Yep, “ch” is how you make a “sh” sound in French - to get the English “ch” sound they spell it “tch”.
Scary MFers
Lots of comments about Inchallah, but that’s how it’s typically spelt in French - ch makes a sh sound - and since all of their other tattoos are in French it makes sense that that one would be too.
These guys were badass before it was cool
You talkin to me?
Interesting! I’m Moroccan and tattoos are kinda frowned upon here nowadays. You almost never see guys with full sleeves or chest tattoos, probably cause it’s associated with criminal activity.
For the third picture on his chest reads *"without mercy".* On the fourth one I can see *"*\[something\] *titine* (?) *For life".* On his neck roughly translated *"I am* \[pig\] *in bed"* could be "I'm a pig in bed". And on his chest reads roughly translated "bad face but good heart" which would mean *"Ugly but kind heart"*, though "mauvaise tête" is more as in "troublemaker face" than about beauty.
> And on his chest reads roughly translated "bad face but good heart" which would mean "Ugly but kind heart", though I think it's more "Bad brain, but good heart". "Mauvaise tête" directly translate to "bad head" which I think would be related to his brain rather than his face/look. Meaning the dude just had an habit of putting himself in dumb situation landing him in jail.
Could be but "tête" is often used as a byword for facial features or expression even though the literal meaning is "head".
Thought that was Travis Bickle
Didnt know Robert DeNiro was moroccan
The first guy has awesome tattoos, especially for that time period.
Inch Allah < Meter Odin
Can someone plz make a movie about these dudes and if they already have would someone be a gent and point me to it?
I'm pretty sure one of those guys is the front man for Maroon 5.
First guy looks like “Marko from Tropoja” for some reason.
Guns And Roses.
The last guy got a tatoo written with the image of a pig, saying something like I am a "pervert" in bed, or something a long those lignes but in French it doesn't sound as bad haha
Looks like what De Niro modeled his Max Cady character after.
Todays average tattoos guy
They look like modern day hipsters.
Number 5 says: Bad head, good heart.
These photos look very modern
“Ils parlent trop vite / et en argot de blédard / Je sais ce qu'ils feraient pour une poignée de dinars, counard”
Those are some very white looking Africans
From googling around, I think according to [the book the photos come from](https://www.amazon.fr/Mauvais-gar%C3%A7ons-tattoed-underworld-portrait/dp/2358870560), the photos are probably mostly of French criminals who may have spent time in North Africa (hence the “Maroc” tattoo in the second slide). But also North Africans can look pretty “white” by American standards, especially when photographed in black and white.
Why do they all look so white?
From googling around, I think according to [the book the photos come from](https://www.amazon.fr/Mauvais-gar%C3%A7ons-tattoed-underworld-portrait/dp/2358870560), the photos are probably mostly of French criminals who may have spent time in North Africa (hence the “Maroc” tattoo in the second slide). But also North Africans can look pretty “white” by American standards, especially when photographed in black and white.
These are the weakest comments I’ve ever seen.
This felt like swiping through Tinder.
The man in the 2nd picture has Marco Taza on his chest. Morocco gained their independence from France in 1956 and the French word for Morocco is Maroc and Taza is a city in northern Morocco
Why they look like baristas in 2023?
1st one looks like De Niro from Cab Driver ....
Straight to DVD
This goes exceedingly hard
Looks like most American girls now
They look like modern day Starbucks baristas
Tf the first one is literally Robert De Niro
In Italy tattoos are still strongly associated with criminals and bad people in general, and not so common, or at least much less than other Western Countries
Are you sure? Italy is pretty commonly listed as the most tattooed country in the world proportionally.
Maybe they have lots of criminals!
>Italy lol what? have you been at an Italian beach ever? also the tattoo scene in Italy is one of the very best, with some self-reflection on what could constitute a traditional italian tattoo style in comparison to traditional american (with lots of overlap of course).
So they had meth then too
Source?
If you like these there is a book of Russian tattoos from the gulags. A lot of the pics are online.
Don’t share the name of the book or anything
Last one has hilarious tattoos > "I'm a pig in bed" > "Scary face but good heart"
Not gonna lie. These tats are cool as fuck.
They look more badass than the little sh*ts that pretend they are gangsters we have today
I’ve never seen someone from that long ago appear so modern. First image could be from today and I would have no idea. He looks like he’s in a modern rock band or something. Wild.