1934 Crocodile Journal Photos Document Tattooed French Criminal Portraits
In a 1934 edition of Crocodile, a bi-monthly publication created by interns at Lyon's civil hospital, the focus was on tattooing in France, emphasizing the experiences of the wearers instead of the designs themselves. The journal featured photographs of marginalized groups, including sailors, prisoners, and sex workers, illustrating tattoos as personal narratives filled with names, symbols, and emotions. Physician Alexandre Lacassagne, known for his collection of tattooed skin, described these tattoos as "speaking scars," suggesting they unveiled deeper truths. Although the subjects often faced dehumanization from societal institutions, their tattoos challenged this perception. Nearly a century later, these images continue to serve as profound expressions of identity from an era when tattooed individuals were seen as outsiders, predating the trend's mainstream acceptance.
Key facts
- A special 1934 issue of Crocodile, a bi-monthly journal published by the medical interns of Lyon's civil hospitals, addressed the "physiognomy" of tattooing in France
- The photographs depict sailors, prisoners, sex workers, pimps and other people pushed to the margins of respectable society
- Tattoos shown include names, symbols, religious images, erotic drawings, declarations of love and bitter jokes
- Alexandre Lacassagne was a physician, criminologist and prison doctor whose collection of tattooed skin and related material became one of the most unsettling archives of its era
- Lacassagne described tattoos as "speaking scars" that might reveal something hidden about the person beneath them
- The subjects were observed, classified and turned into evidence by institutions that rarely offered them dignity or a voice of their own
- Long before the 1930s, tattoos were often viewed with suspicion rather than as fashion, fandom or self-invention
- The images remain startlingly intimate nearly a century later, each a fragment of self-expression made permanent
Entities
Artists
- Alexandre Lacassagne
Institutions
- Crocodile
- Lyon's civil hospitals
- Design You Trust
- Flashbak
Locations
- Lyon
- France