Gang Tattoo Removal Risky and Expensive

Juan wanted to leave gang life and get a job. But after potential employers saw the gang logo tattooed on his right hand, they quickly lost interest.

So he decided to get the tattoo removed. Now he can barely work at all.

The surgery performed to eliminate the tattoo left him with only partial use of his right hand. Adding insult to injury, much of the tattoo still remains.

“I can’t open my hand all the way. They took the web off. It didn’t work out too good,” said Juan, a 16-year-old Panorama City youth who asked not to use his real name.

Stories such as Juan’s are not uncommon, say youth counselors and probation officers in the San Fernando Valley. Many who want to lose the symbols of gang affiliation face high fees, or even, like Juan, permanent injury.

New techniques involving lasers can cost as much as $4,000 per tattoo--a price far out of the range of many. So most turn to the old techniques of cut-and-sew, performed by friends or medical interns at free clinics such as the one Juan visited.

Youth counselors are searching for plastic surgeons who can safely and cheaply remove tattoos, or financial help to lease a laser that costs $1,200 per month.

“We get a lot of calls from homeboys who want to get rid of them,” said Manuel Velazquez, a counselor with Community Youth Gang Services in Sylmar. “If there’s a plastic surgeon who can do it right and they want to do it volunteer or on the cheap, it would help a lot of them.”

“It’s exciting when you get the first tattoo and the second one, because you’re crazy for the neighborhood,” said Velazquez. “But it’s going to cost you later.”