Jean LACASSAGNE Albums du crocodile : Tatouages du “Milieu”.

First edition of this supplement to the journal ‘Crocodile’, bi-monthly bulletin of the General Association of the medical internship of the Civil hospitals in the city of Lyon this sepcial issue to accompany 2nd year, issue V, September-October 1934, dealing with the physiognomy of tattooing in France.

It is illustrated with one two-colour tattoo on each cover, 12 black tattoo drawings in text, and 27 black and white photos of tattooed people (torso, face, back, genitals, whole body) including marins, pimps, prisoners, and prostitutes.

Dermatologist and medical historian, Dr Lacassagne is also a prison doctor. There he treated criminals and prostitutes, which aroused his curiosity about the art of tattooing, then reserved for people on the margins of society. He endeavours to draw up a profile of the tattooed person, the physiognomy of the tattoo, the type of meaning, the parts of the body concerned, etc.

We learn that the back allows the tattooist to mislead the tattooed person about the nature of what he or she is engraving, that the eye area and the toes are the most sensitive zones, and that tattoos can be punitive.

It includes a photo of the torso of the notorious criminal Louis Rambert, who left his skin adorned with a magnificent polychrome tattoo to the doctor.

Cover slightly foxed.