Tattoo-Removal Event Comes to Town

A dozen people filled the Conejo Valley Family Care Center, eager to remove gang tattoos and start a new life without the markings that once made them feel proud and tough.

On Saturday, a laser blasted the tattoos off the hands and wrists of Monica Franco, a 27-year-old mother of three.

Removing the 10-year-old tattoos will help Franco completely sever ties with the Oxnard gang she left behind when she moved to the Conejo Valley to start a new life with her children, she said.

“I’m getting these off out of respect for my kids,” Franco said. “I don’t want them to think it’s a cool thing to do. My 7-year-old girl just asked me if she can get a tattoo. I was shocked. I said, ‘No way.’ ”

Seven of those getting tattoos removed were young people from Camp Kilpatrick, a juvenile detention center in Malibu. The other five were local residents.

The gang-tattoo removal clinic began in Port Hueneme in 1994 by Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, who wanted to help former gang members start a new life.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been through the clinics. The latest round of clinics began in Santa Paula last month. This was the first gang-tattoo removal event in Thousand Oaks.

The clinic is privately funded by the Landon Pediatric Foundation, Helping Hands Foundation and the Lawrence P. Frank Foundation, which give more than $25,000 a year for the laser machinery, the dressings and the costs of running the clinic.

Although the service doesn’t cost money for those having tattoos removed, it doesn’t come free. They are required to contribute 40 hours of community service to nonprofit organizations as they undergo the laser treatment. Many of them will have to undergo additional treatments once a month for three or four months to completely remove a tattoo.