I was asked recently by a queer artist who’s thinking of getting this tattoo on their body what the reference was for the caption. After all, if they’re going to make a commitment to it, they want to be sure that it really was a tattoo popular with gay criminals. At least allegedly.
It’s the practice on Nemfrog to link back to the source, in this case the title is bolded and underlined, which is the tipoff. (Currently, I skip a line and write the name of the site where it comes from, which is a link back to the page where an image can be found.)
The tattoo originates in a book of illustrations related to the work of an often cited Italian criminologist named César Lombroso. The book was published in Rome and written in French. The link on the post goes to Plate XVI. If you go there you’ll see the page with six drawings of tattoos which is where the famous tattoo is depicted, but there aren’t any apparent descriptions of where they come from or anything about them. Look carefully and you’ll see the tattoo in the post is labeled with a “3.” That denotes it as figure 3 on a page with six figures.
To find the description you have to turn pages until you’ll get to the section titled “Explication des Planches,” meaning “Explanation of Plates.” The description of Plate XVI says “fig. 2,3,4,5 et 6 – Tatouages fréquents dans les pédérastes.” That translates as “tattoos common among homosexuals.” The word pederast has a different meaning in French than English. It was the equivalent of homosexual.
So there it is. Famed criminologist César Lombroso said the tattoo of two hands clasping a knife dripping blood was popular with gay criminals. That’s my source.
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