Thursday, December 13, 2012

Russian Prison Tattoo T-Shirts...Perhaps a Slightly Bad Idea?

Do you guys like Sourpuss Clothing? I think some of their stuff is really cute, and I've frequently been just-on-the-verge of ordering something. This morning, though, I found something I definitely WON'T be buying.

Are they crazy?
These are T-shirts with designs based on Russian prison tattoos.

Exhibit A:
no offense to the cute model...she's workin' those Bettie bangs!
There are several more designs, but you get the picture.
Offensive much? The first one looks like a big 'ol scary Nazi insignia. I believe that a skull of any kind means the wearer is a murderer. The third one, apparently, includes a very, very foul word in Russian. Such a bad word that the Russian-speaking individual that I asked couldn't say it out loud.

I live in an area where there are a lot of Russian immigrants and I can only imagine the reactions I'd get if I walked down the street wearing one of these shirts.

I mean, at first glance they're kind-of cool looking, and I'm honestly not a prude...I don't have any tatts myself, but I do like them when they're well-designed and well-thought out...I've actually been really close to getting one a few times.
But think about what these particular designs represent!!! The guys that have these type of tatts in real life are murderers and rapists. Torturers. Serial killers. Do we really want to celebrate and glorify that, people?
Think about the innocent victims of these criminals...how would they feel seeing one of these images walking down the street?

Maybe Sourpuss is going for shock-value here. I'm sure there is a large segment of the population that will think these are cool, bad-a**looking, and will snatch them up right away.

I think anyone who would wear one of these shirts is an ignorant, insensitive jerk.

So there.

What do you guys think? Would you wear one of these shirts?


3 comments:

  1. Oh hellz no! I'm all for them making the T-shirts but seriously? Dumb. Dumb is what I'd think if I saw some slack jaw wearing one- and they are ugly as well. I'd probably judge thinking that the person wearing it was trying way to hard to look cool, and failing miserably.

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    Replies
    1. Haha! I know, right? These shirts might be the definition of trying too hard...

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  2. Check this out instead:

    http://RussianCriminalTattoos.com

    Thats my clothing company that I started about 3 years ago. i approached sourpuss about featuring my line in their shop and they went ahead and just stole the idea and copied a bunch of designs out of a book and printed them on shirts. They picked all the wrong tattoos that one could pick. Honestly, this stuff doesnt really belong on tshirts, btu I knew that someone would do it eventually, so I decided to beat them to the punch. I am Russian, so I figured its better that we do it then someone who has no connection to this art whtsoever.

    My line is doing very well and I urge you to give this art a chance and take a look at some of our designs. Every design has a description with the meaning of the tattoos and some of the designs are quite "calm" and represent "love", like this one fro instance:

    http://www.russiancriminaltattoos.com/product/mir067-cat-family-t-shirt

    I just think that if this art is presented in the right way, it can pass in fashion, so to speak.

    Thanx
    Roman B
    MIR Apparel

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