Erasing ink - and stigmas
Tattoo-removal plan aims to help ACS kids
They say you can’t erase the past — but the ACS is helping some of those in its care do just that.
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services has begun paving the way for sex-trafficking victims and reformed gang members to have removed any tattoos forced on them by captors or the pressures of gang life.
The child-welfare agency came up with the plan after a higher-up learned of a young girl whose pimp tattooed his name on her face.
“Just hearing about the name of this pimp on her face, it just killed me,” said Selina Higgins, executive director of the agency’s Office of Child Trafficking Prevention and Policy.
“Honestly, I went home that night and said, ‘ Good grief, what am I going to do about this? I have to do something,’ ” she told The Post.
Some pimps act like modern-day slave traders and brand their vic- tims with their names — or messages such as “F- -k you, pay me,” and “ATM” — to show ownership.
Gangbangers also are often pressured to get tattoos identifying them as part of their crew.
The markings may be only skindeep, but the trauma they represent goes far deeper, child-welfare workers said. So the agency will be providing counseling in the lead-up to tattoo removal.
“There’s also a lot of emotion behind the tattoo, and by removing that, your removing a part of their life,” Higgins said. “So you have to have a counseling component.”
The program is voluntary and still in its planning phase, the ACS said. It also will help young people who simply regret getting tattoos, including those worried the markings could affect their job-hunting.
Jay Reid, 21, of Bushwick, Brooklyn, is one of six people in ACS care who has requested the procedure so far.
“I didn’t have anybody to tell me ‘no,’ ” he said, recalling when he got a massive rose tattoo on his left hand at age 16.
Reid, who is not affiliated with a gang and has not been trafficked, said he was getting it removed to help him land a better job.
“What if I want to become a doctor? It just doesn’t look good on my hand,” Reid said. “So for professional reasons, I don’t want it anymore.”
Laser tattoo-removal typically re- quires multiple sessions and can cost up to $10,000, but the ACS said it has teamed up with three doctors who will do the work pro bono.
“It takes me 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and it changes their life. So it would be weird not to do it,” said ACS partner Dr. David Ores, who has performed the procedure more than 1,000 times with his nonprofit, Fresh Start.