Mauvais Garçons — Portraits de Tatoués, 1890–1930 (25 Postcards set)

A rare visual archive of the tattooed underworld, drawn from French police mugshots at the turn of the century.

Extended Description

This postcard set, titled Mauvais Garçons, unveils a clandestine gallery of tattooed men—thieves, anarchists, deserters—photographed in stark, frontal poses by the French police between 1890 and 1930. What once served as forensic evidence now reads like an unintentional art project: a collection of outsider self-portraits inked directly onto skin. Each image bears witness to an era when tattoos were the mark of defiance, identity, and underworld codes—a visual language etched with hearts, women, daggers, and mystic symbols.

These men, hardened yet vulnerable, wear their lives in monochrome. The compositions, raw and formally direct, recall early anthropometric photography while subverting it through a visceral intimacy. Compiled and published by La Manufacture de Livres, this box set contains 25 black-and-white postcards, each a testament to bodies turned biographies. Whether sent, framed, or kept intact as an archival object, the set bridges criminology and portraiture with dark lyricism.

Technical Sheet

• Object: Postcard Set
• Title: Mauvais Garçons — Portraits de Tatoués, 1890–1930
• Artist / Author: Anonymous police photographers
• Date: Published 2021 (images c. 1890–1930)
• Technique / Printing Method: Offset printing
• Medium / Materials: Cardstock in slipcase
• Edition: Standard edition
• Signed: No
• Dimensions: 15 x 10.5 cm (each postcard)
• Language: French / English
• Pages: 25 postcards
• Publisher / Editor: La Manufacture de Livres
• Condition: Near Mint
• Provenance: Darwin Collection