After conducting two scientific studies that concentrate on tattoo removal among people of color, Dr. Jo Marie Reilly, a professor of family medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, decided to take the research one step further. She and her research team searched for evidence to support the need for and benefits of tattoo removal.
To give a brief summary of her previous research, the first study analyzed 862 patients who received tattoo removal procedures at Homeboy Industries’ Ya’Stuvo Tattoo Removal program. Her research team wanted to understand who the clinic’s patients are and their motivations for originally getting and eventually removing their tattoos. The second study examined the complications that this population faces when it comes to tattoo removal and best practices that can be established to deal with them.
Team’s third study of Homeboy tattoo removal service recipients
The results of the third study, Characterizing the Impact and Outcomes of Tattoo Removal on Recently Incarcerated and Gang Affiliated Individuals, were published in the Sept. 13 edition of the “Journal of Community Medicine & Public Health.”
The goal of the most recent study was to examine the long-term outcomes of laser tattoo removal among individuals who were formerly incarcerated and/or gang-related.
The research took place from August 2022 to May 2024. During that time, Homeboy’s tattoo removal providers, who include doctors, nurses and other medical providers, asked every person who came to the clinic – and who had tattoos that had been removed or were almost finished being removed – to participate.
“We asked them, ‘Would you be willing to be interviewed about how it changed your life?’ And most of the participants were happy to do it,” says Reilly, who served as the lead researcher on this and the previous two studies. The challenge, she found, was following up and tracking people down afterward, but ultimately about 85% to 90% of the people who said they wanted to participate actually did.
Process included online survey and interview
The process began with an initial online survey of 25 questions that were developed, according to Reilly, by discussions with patients about mental health issues and the challenges they faced with law enforcement and employment as a result of their tattoos. The questions were designed to find out how patients saw themselves pre- and post-tattoo removal.
The survey was followed by an interview with each participant conducted by a five-member medical student research team at the Keck School of Medicine. Patient participants were given a $5 gift card after finishing the survey and a $15 gift card after completing the interview. A total of 104 clients filled out the survey, and 90 completed the interview.
The survey and interviews gave researchers more insight into why clients wanted their tattoos removed and why they got them in the first place.
The main reasons for getting tattoos were:
- Gang affiliation: 62%
- Decoration: 40%
- Current or ex-relationship: 33%
The main reasons for getting tattoos removed were:
- Tattoos attract negative attention: 74%
- Clients gained more maturity: 73%
- Clients were ready to change their lives: 70%
- A better chance of employment: 67%
- Safety issues: 42%
- Family reasons: 39%
In addition to collecting data, the researchers gathered stories by interviewing clients. These stories are meant to illustrate why they got their tattoos removed and what a difference the process has made in transforming their life.
Benefits of tattoo removal
Through the questionnaire and the interview process, researchers found that tattoo removal most benefitted clients in the following areas:
Financial – Clients felt their tattoos negatively impacted their financial situation by preventing them from being hired at jobs they applied for. This is especially true for those who had tattoos on their face, neck or hands. Some respondents with tattoos in those places were discouraged from even looking for work to begin with.
Education – 80% of clients said that getting their tattoos removed would make them more motivated to seek out education and/or job training opportunities.
Improved relationships – Respondents cited improved relationships as one positive result of tattoo removal. These relationships are not only with loved ones but with society in general. A society in which they are stigmatized and stereotyped as “bad” or “dangerous.”
Safety – Those with gang tattoos want to avoid violent attacks from rival gangs. They also want to avoid the type of profiling or harassment they’d experienced from law enforcement officers in the past. 91% of those who had their tattoos removed felt they were less or no longer profiled, and 87% thought they were safer.
Overall, tattoo removal allows clients to make positive changes, begin a new, safer life; and reintegrate more easily and confidently into society.
More tattoo removal services are needed
Based on the positive impact that tattoo removal has on the population that Homeboy Industry serves, and because of the prohibitive expense of tattoo removal for most people among that same population, the researchers highlight the need for more affordable tattoo removal services that are available to recently incarcerated individuals and former gang members.
And the researchers are continuing to work toward the goal of highlighting that need so that more people can benefit from free or low-cost tattoo removals.
In August they began to expand the study to include 20 other organizations doing tattoo removal for this population at sites throughout California, from San Diego to Sacramento. They have interviewed 35 patients thus far from this multi-site study but are hoping to include several hundred over the next year.
“It will give us a larger population with more data,” Reilly says. “Our ultimate goal is to get Governor Newsom to agree for California to include tattoo removal as a process covered by Med-Cal for those who were formerly incarcerated.”
The state currently provides procedures to remove similar tattoos for people who are incarcerated in many of California’s state prisons. But it doesn’t offer them once someone is released – not even for those who started treatments inside but did not complete them.
The research team is also trying to get more publicity for their research in the mainstream media, which they hope will lead to additional funding for the work they do at Homeboy Industries.
“The work is impressive and it changes lives, so we’re hoping that people will give donations to Homeboy Industries for its tattoo removal program,” Reilly says. “It’s the only part of Homeboy that doesn’t have dedicated funding. It totally relies on donations.”
