I couldn’t find any typical gangster movie scenes of steam baths/saunas - of which there are loads! - but this one gets the idea acrossthis is exactly the clip I was talking about - and in many ways is a typical gangster scene in a steam bath, just translated to the russian mafia in London by Cronenberg (the baths it was filmed in are Ironmonger Row municipal baths, just off old street in east London I believe)
see also this clip which Youtube offered: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChMAIiG38Lc&NR=1
Is this true about the Russian attitude to Tattoos? It might be important to find out - is there an equivalent on the urban ‘body’ of a tattoo? A semi-permanent mark on the city’s flesh - the context wherein these marks are made to represent or commemorate past sins could be a useful analogy
Baths are also very important in the development of gay culture in metropolitan areas - see for instance the continental baths in New York, one of the birthplaces of House music in north America, as both Larry Levan & Frankie Knuckles both played music there before they became celebrated as innovators in the Paradise Garage (NY) and the Warehouse in Chicago respectively
