San Jose, Calif.-based New Skin Tattoo Removal has created a 10 Cities 10 Days 1,000 Second Chances campaign in which it plans to remove 100 tattoos in each of 10 California cities in 10 days free of charge.
The organization began to raise money for the effort early this month on Gofundme in a fundraising campaign that will continue until the end of the year, with a target goal of $30,000.
New Skin currently operates programs in San Jose, where it’s headquartered, and San Pablo, Calif., where it works with that San Francisco Bay Area suburb on its Removing Barriers tattoo removal program.
‘This idea (to branch out) came a few years ago when we first started out and noticed a lot of people came from places like Fresno, Salinas and Bakersfield because there are no services out there,” says Adam King, New Skin’s CEO. “There are tons of programs for youth but nothing for adults. There’s also a high percentage of people who are trying to change their lives, and we want to help them.”
Once funding for 10 Cities 10 Days 1,000 Second Chances is secured, hopefully by the end of the year, King plans to spend next March covering the state of California, from north to south, spending a day each in Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Salinas, Fresno, Bakersfield, Santa Maria, San Bernardino and Long Beach and ending in San Diego.
He will contact churches in each of those cities to serve as the locations for the program and is already reaching out to government officials, especially in parks and rec departments, in the various cities to let them know his plans. Once the funding comes through the various agencies will publicize the event to drum up clients. In San Jose, King works with organizations that include Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army and also hopes to do the same in the 10 cities they will visit.
The organization will use a donated RV, which has already been secured, and a staff of volunteer medical professionals who will do the procedures using portable tattoo removal laser devices. They will spend one day in each city, and all procedures will be done free of charge.
King also plans to take along a video team to document the trip. They will not only film the 10-city campaign but will also do follow up with some of the people who have their tattoos removed to see how it affected their lives. “We’ll go back to individuals’ homes and follow them to get a more in in-depth portrait of how people feel,” King says.
Once the locations are secured, New Skin volunteers will follow up with clients each month to continue the tattoo removal process. Monarch Lasers, its laser device rental company, can provide the equipment and a team for Southern California and New Skin will take care of Northern California, according to King.
“This will also be a test to see which city has the highest demand for this service so we can decide if it’s worth continuing,” he says.
And that’s the ultimate goal of the campaign – for New Skin to open programs like it has in San Jose and San Pablo in as many of the 10 cities it will visit as possible.
“It will, however, be a slow process and take a long time,” said King. “We’ll build up one program for six months and then move on to the next.”
It may take time, but thanks to a shortage of free and low-cost tattoo removal programs in California and throughout the nation, if all goes well New Skin will be instrumental in providing a much-needed service to those who need it most.
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