The Mugshot. Definitely a work of art.

We’ve had a few of them come into our possession over the years, and they are always full of so much fascinating mystery. They definitely have a special quality to them; you know that person did something “wrong” and then they paid for it. Most of the time we don’t know what that “wrong”-doing was, or what happened to them thereafter, and for someone with a vivid imagination like ours, it can provide endless amounts of entertainment.

Sites like Small Town Noir give new life to these individuals and their stories, and many of the mugshots that really inspired us for this post are taken from there. Definitely check it out!

Mugshots were first devised in 1888 by French police clerk Alphonse Bertillon who devised the classic format of a side by side profile and head on photograph on one sheet to keep track of the various delinquents making their way in and out of the justice system.

This format provides a unique portrait of the individual at their most vulnerable and/or volatile so its interesting to seek out the various expressions you can find.  Vintage ones definitely have a lot more appeal to them with the various photographic qualities you can find out there compared to the ratchet digital captures they use today.

So, lets indulge a little . . . This is a gallery invoking the spirit of bad ass bad girls in all their irreverence, modernity, boldness, and femme fatale glory . . .

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we can’t help but appreciate these stylish bad girls for all their bad ass glory!

Pay special attention to the makeup & hair (especially the 50s / 60s era mugshots) whose eyeliner, cat eyes, and bouffants are definitely making a comeback today!

 

Suzanna Somers

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{arrested March 1970 in San Francisco for bad cheques}

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Now that the invocation is complete!

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Until next time,

{theEye}

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