Rays of hope for fresh start
Program uses laser technology to help ex-gang members erase signs of allegiance
Christina Chan, a dermatologist at Monarch Laser Services, removes a gang tattoo as part of a new Santa Rosa program for former gang members trying to break ties and start anew. The program, "Clean Slate," still has 20 slots open.
SCOTT MANCHESTER / The Press DemocratPublished: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 3:42 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:37 a.m.
"I had a 3.8 GPA, but with my looks, getting a job is hard."
"RONNIE"
candidate in Clean Slate
program, which pays bulk of cost for removing gang tattoosHe breathed a deep sigh and clenched his fists.
Zap. Zap. Zap. The laser beamed dots of light on his neck. Foamy white welts rose atop the crude lines of the X4 tattoo near his ear, signaling norteño gang allegiance.
Now reformed and proud of it, Ronnie was a norteño nearly half his life, joining at age 13 in San Jose to impress his dad, who was in prison for murder.
That meant robbery, drugs and eight tattoos, he said.
He will soon have one less piece of needlework that was etched in his flesh by "the homeboys," using a smuggled needle and melted down black Checkers inside the California Youth Authority.
With the beam of a laser, Santa Rosa launched its first gang tattoo removal program Thursday to help Ronnie and others like him diminish the most visible imprints of their past lives.
But even as the dermatologist, Christina Chan of Monarch Laser Services, was using wavelengths of light to break up the ink pigments, the power of gang culture lingered.
The "Clean Slate" program location is being kept private, as are the identities of those receiving treatment, for fear of retribution, said Tom Bieri, director of Social Advocates for Youth, a program partner.
It requested that Ronnie's name be withheld to protect him and others in the program from gang retaliation.
Bieri told a story of an East Bay program director he knew who was sent the head of a former gang member in a box.
"Gangs are a business model, and a lot of people rely on the 'little homies' to run it," Bieri said. "They're motivated to put us out of business."
Ink on flesh can take any shape. But when a tattoo signals gang affiliation -- such as a Roman numeral 13 for sureños or a 14 for norteños -- it can make it even tougher for a person to shake former ties, or to circumvent the stigma of gang involvement.
Gang tattoos are often the "final barrier to employment" for many seeking a fresh start, Bieri said, and not all of them can be covered.
One man had tattoos above each eyebrow and on his chin, tattoos that he said he got in the California Youth Authority -- the state's prison for teens.
One had helped steal computer ink in jail to use for tattoos. Another had used pencil lead.
"It causes me a lot of problems," Ronnie said of the neck tattoo he's getting removed. He was even asked to leave the Santa Rosa Plaza last month by security when handing out fliers for his church, Victory Outreach in Santa Rosa, he said.
He said he wants the young people in his ministry to know his story.
After jail time, he reformed in Hayward when attending the church there. He said he moved to Santa Rosa to be closer to his old pastor, Jose Guadarrama, a former gang member-turned-Victory Church pastor.
Ronnie has a degree from a technical school but little work experience, except for at the church. He also has tattoos on his forearms, chest and neck.
"I had a 3.8 GPA, but with my looks, getting a job is hard," he said.
Laser removal is a costly process, from $250 up to $1,000 per treatment at the Monarch center in Belmont. Some can pay 10 times the cost of a tattoo to remove it, and it hurts much more, said owner John Mincey.
His nurses are contracted to remove gang tattoos for Santa Rosa's and seven other Bay Area programs, including one in Sausalito, he said.
"We take them off police and firefighters, and women with names of old boyfriends, but most of our work is to make people more beautiful," Mincey said. "It feels wonderful to be able to impact someone's life."
Clean Slate participants need only pay a $50 fee for the process thanks to a $19,500 grant from Kaiser Santa Rosa, and funding from Social Advocates for Youth, the county human services department, and Measure O public safety sales tax dollars.
The city's program is modeled after those offered for at least a decade in other areas with large gang populations, such as San Jose and San Francisco.
The gang problem "isn't going away and isn't getting better," said Sheriff's Cpt. Dave Edmonds. "We want to do the best we can to keep the lid on it."
The Clean Slate program will remove gang tattoos from 30 people, ages 14 to 24, who have demonstrated they are committed to starting anew, Bieri said.
That means they've entered a program at a nonprofit or are working to earn their high school equivalency certificate, go to college or get a job, Bieri said.
The county probation department -- whose juvenile officials have seen a rise in girls involved in gangs -- Hope Works, the Southwest Community Health Center and Victory Outreach are referring people.
Twenty more slots remain open and will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis. People can contact Gary Iacini at Social Advocates for Youth, at 544-3299 ext. 238, to sign up.
Each person can receive six sessions spaced eight weeks apart. That allows the skin to heal and the body to flush out the dissolved ink pigment.
It's the chance for a new beginning, said a former norteño who now works to deter Santa Rosa youth from gangs.
He couldn't afford the treatment by himself, he said. He had a large tattoo on his forearm and a small one on his neck lasered.
"I've been waiting a long time for this," he said.
Staff Writer Shadi Rahimi can be reached at 521-5280 and shadi.rahimi
@pressdemocrat.com.
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