In a corner of the barracks on the lower cots quilts of various colours were spread. To the corner post was wired a burning kolymka – a home-made lamp that worked on gas fumes. Three or four open-ended copper tubes were soldered to the lid of a tin can. It was a very simple device. When hot coals were placed on the lid, the gas heated up and fumes rose along the pipes, burning at the pipe ends when lit by a match. On the blankets lay a dirty feather pillow and on either side of it the players sat, their legs tucked under them. A new deck of cards lay on the pillow. These were not ordinary cards, but a home-made prison deck made with amazing deftness by the local wizards. They needed only paper, a piece of bread (chewed and pressed through a rag to produce starch to glue the sheets together), an indelible pencil stub, and a knife (to cut stencils for the card suits and the cards themselves). Today’s cards were cut from a book by Victor Hugo; someone had forgotten the book the day before in the office. It had heavy thick paper, so there was no need to glue sheets together. A dirty hand with the slender white fingers of a non-working man was patting the deck on the pillow. The nail of the little finger was of unusual length – a fashion among the criminals, just like their gold, that is bronze, crowns put on completely healthy teeth. As for the fingernails, nail polish would unquestionably have become popular in the ‘criminal world’ if it were possible to obtail polish in prison circumstances. - An extract from 'On Tick' by Varlam Shalamov, reproduced in the @fuelpublishing book, 'Russian Criminal Tattoos and Playing Cards' by Arkady Bronnikov - - - #Shalamov #Kolyma #Tales #russiancriminaltattoo #russiancriminal #tattoo #arkadybronnikov #sergeivasiliev #danzigbaldaev #russiancriminaltattooarchive #art #tattoos #tattooed #tattooart #traditional #linetattoo #playingcards #tattooing #cardistry #ussr #soviet #sovietunion #russia #russianprisontattoo #criminaltattoo #handpoke #stickandpoke #photography #fuelpublishing #fueldesign #Repost @fuelpublishing https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvu7JtTn0iO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12fmcdbm2pqqi
