SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Law enforcement officials say gang tattoos are a symbol of belonging. Gang members say it marks them for "who they claim" and it marks them for life. Lives do change and some of those changes occur behind bars at youth correctional facilities.
Teens who are looking to erase the mistakes of their past, also want to erase the ink on their skin. A local businessman helped some of them start over with a clean slate.
"It doesn't hurt that bad, I promise it feels about the same as getting a tattoo and it's over before you know it." said one of the teens, who we promised not to identify.
She is freeing herself from some of the bonds of her past by having her tattoos removed.
She says the removal of her "ink" with the laser doesn't hurt, but she has no memory of what it felt like when she got the tattoos, because she was high on drugs.
"I blacked out and a couple days later I was talking to my friend and I noticed I had a tattoo." she said.
The former gang member says drugs helped her forget the pain caused by her troubled life and incessant law breaking.
She took the first step toward change with a phone call.
"I turned myself in. So ya, because I probably wouldn't be alive right now."
She is now looking forward to a new life without the tattooed markings of her past.
"Why is it important to you to get a fresh start over? Um, because I am somebody different...I wasn't that person who was getting high anymore."
Slowly the gang signs are removed from her body and at no charge to tax payers. The owner of Ink Doubt offers free laser removal to juvenile offenders.
It's something that we do with the state and we offer it to the kids so they can when they get out they have an opportunity to move on with their lives rather than going right back into it." said owner Matt Arnold.
Having the ink removed symbolizes a permanent break from gang life.
Arnold concluded, "It means a fresh start to a lot of the kids. A very concrete way to leave their past behind them."
For the young lady getting her tattoo removed, she is leaving her past behind her. She is close to graduating from high school and wants to be a cosmotologist. She has also considered being a mentor in her corrections program and is encouraging other teens to shed their past life styles and their tattoos as well.
