In prison, convicts are given numbers instead of names, forced to wear ill-fitting and uncomfortable government-issue clothes, issued degrading haircuts - they are effectively stripped of their individuality and treated like animals instead of human beings. This locked-away penal world which offers so much idle time, so little meaningful challenge, and no real hope, often inspires convicts to choose any possible means available of expressing themselves. For many, tattoos fulfill this need. The convict learns to use his body like a canvas, a confessional, an instrument of private communication. In order to establish the self-image and identity necessary to survive, he tags himself with tattoos.
Tattooing in prison is illegal. It is done on the sly for a couple of cartons of cigarettes, or some other gratuity. A convict displays his tattoos as if they were badges of honor. They illustrate his rite of passage, and demonstrate the fact that he's been indelibly marked by the experience of being a prisoner and a member of the convicted class.
Prison Tattoos, by acclaimed photographer Douglas Kent Hall, chronicles these living stories of crime and passion, punishment and regret, in 89 black-and-white photographs of convicts within the American penal system. The prisoners' homemade, ballpoint-pen tattoos permanently imprint on their bodies what these men desire in their souls: autonomy and identity. The totemic symbols we see over and over - the hypodermic needles, spider's webs, death's-head icons ¾ are reminders of prisoners' addictions. Other images, such as gun towers, brick walls, prison bars, clocks, teardrops, and hourglasses, point to the painful tedium of long-term incarceration.
Like a car wreck, tattoos dare the passer-by to slow down and take a peek, and most people can't stop themselves from doing so. With Prison Tattoos, Hall offers a powerful look at members of a sector of society who are desperately trying to create an identity for themselves by any means possible. And by utilizing the page of transferable temporary tattoos included inside the back cover of every book, readers will not only be able to view the artfully conceived tattoos, but can also take part, to some extent, in this mythologizing and liberating ritual themselves.
