A Strange Custom. The Lombroso Museum Tattoos
Authors/Creators
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1.
University of Turin
Description
Before punks and skinheads, before American pachucos and Parisian apaches, there were Emilio, Ciro, Alexandre, Jean, Giovanni, Francesco and many others. They were not members of a youth movement, but their criminal records and tattoos drew the attention of Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909). The Italian criminologist had their portraits drawn, interviewed them about the meanings of the designs on their skin, and recorded notes about their meandering lives. Lombroso was looking for visible signs of abnormality and believed he had found them in the tattoos. Through the lens of nineteenth-century criminal anthropology, this provides us with an exceptional record of the emergence of one of today’s most widespread forms of personal expression, to which this catalogue and a new 3D installation in the Lombroso Museum’s exhibition itinerary are dedicated.
Notes
Text revised on 19 November 2025.
Files
2025 A Strange Custom_The Lombroso Museum Tattoos_rev.pdf
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