FREED
FROM GANG TATTOOS

Topics: Assurance; Atonement; Blood of Christ; Discipleship; Freedom; Identity; Justification; Pardon; Purity; Rebirth; Repentance; Salvation; Sanctification; Sin

References: Proverbs 5:22; Romans 6:23; 8:2; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 2:13; 1 John 1:7

Father Greg Boyle, founder and director of Homeboy Industries in East Los Angeles, has put together a team of physicians trained to remove the tattoos of ex-gang members. The service is crucial for their success in making it outside the gang.

Gang-related tattoos prevent many former gang members from getting jobs or advancing in work. For others, the markings put them in serious danger on the streets. There is no fee or community service required to receive the service offered by Homeboy Industries; tattoo removal is strictly a gift. Currently, more than a thousand names are on the waiting list.

The seeming permanence of a gang tattoo fosters the attitude that the gang’s claim is also permanent. It is a mark of ownership as much as identity. The emotional consequence is that the tie seems a part of a person that can never be shaken.

I suspect some of us have felt like this with past sins whose mark we cannot shake off though we know we have been cleansed by Christ. Perhaps the imagery of tattoo removal can evoke a renewed sense of our blessed assurance. Like former gang members who have had the marks of a former life removed, so our sins are blotted out by the blood of Christ. They are remembered no longer.

The process of tattoo removal is extremely painful. Patients describe the laser procedure as feeling like hot grease has been poured on their skin. Yet the list grows, each name representing a life that longs to be free and is willing to endure the pain to seize freedom.

—Jill Carattini, “A Slice of Infinity,” rzim.org (June 23, 2006)