This article is based on a unique dataset of 75,448 written descriptions of tattoos on British criminal convicts who were either transported or imprisoned during the period from 1791 to 1925. Combining both quantitative evidence (provided as visualizations) and qualitative evidence, it shows that, rather than expressing criminal identities as criminologists and sociologists argued, convicts’ tattoos expressed a broad range of subjects, affinities, and interests from wider popular and even mainstream culture. The diverse occupations held by convicts, the contexts in which tattoos were created, and incidental references to tattooing in other parts of society all point to a growing phenomenon that was embedded in Victorian culture rather than constituting an expression of deviance or resistance. Indeed, in the late nineteenth century, tattooing became fashionable within elite society. These findings not only shed light on the significance of tattooing as a form of cultural expression but also undermine the myth that nineteenth-century criminality was the product of, as contemporary commentators termed it, a distinct “criminal class.”

中文翻译：

---

十九世纪英国的罪犯和文身的文化意义

这篇文章基于一个独特的数据集，该数据集包含 75,448 份关于 1791 年至 1925 年期间被转移或监禁的英国罪犯纹身的书面描述。结合定量证据（以可视化形式提供）和定性证据，它表明，与犯罪学家和社会学家认为的表达犯罪身份不同，罪犯的纹身表达了广泛的主题、亲和力和来自更广泛的流行文化甚至主流文化的兴趣。罪犯从事的不同职业、纹身产生的背景，以及社会其他部分对纹身的偶然提及，都指向一种日益增长的现象，这种现象植根于维多利亚时代的文化中，而不是一种越轨或反抗的表现。的确，在十九世纪后期，纹身在精英社会中变得流行起来。这些发现不仅阐明了纹身作为一种文化表达形式的重要性，而且还打破了 19 世纪的犯罪活动是当代评论家所称的独特“犯罪阶级”产物的神话。