Question by fun_kid621: does anybody know if people were forcibly tattooed in the soviet gulag system ?
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Answer by Arcadia
No, there was no tattooing of gulag prisoners.
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Russian Life & People Digest
hec says
Unlike Nazi Germany, Gulag prisoners were not tattooed by prison administration, I guess you know that.
Speaking about tattoos very popular among prisoners – they had their own symbolics and could tell other criminals, whom they are dealing (thieves, robbers etc). Some of them were "forcibly tattooed". If you read Russian, I provide a good link below (which includes some examples and descriptions). In brief – there were tattoos for unpaid card debts, rapists, police informers etc.