NORTH COUNTY -- Gang tattoos often are used to tell the world the bearer is proud of his affiliation and his neighborhood, law enforcement officials and former gang members say.
But the indelible etchings are much easier applied than removed. The options are to cover them up with another tattoo or have them removed by laser -- a painful, expensive process that is often beyond the financial reach of most former gang members.
Gangs are prevalent in parts of North County, which has more than 2,200 gang members, according to 2004 figures from the San Diego Regional Gang Task Force. Oceanside alone had 12 street gangs in that year, while Escondido had four. And officials and former gang members say that tattoos carrying gang symbols contribute to the problem.
But when former gang members are trying to put their lives back together, find jobs and detach themselves from the stigma of gang life, they soon learn that removing the tattoos is very expensive. One tattoo removal business, for example, charges as much as $8,000 to remove a single tattoo, a company official said last week.
Grant ends for low-cost removal
The Family Centers of San Diego clinic in San Diego's Logan Heights was one of the only places in San Diego County that offered low-cost removal of tattoos for gang members wanting to leave that life behind and find a decent job.
In 1999, the clinic received a one-year grant that included a laser and money to pay physicians to remove gang tattoos -- a service the clinic provided free to many former gang members, clinic spokeswoman Jennette Lawrence said.
In 2000, the clinic received a grant from health care company Kaiser Permanente that allowed it to continue the program, she said. Later, however, the grant money dried up. In the ensuing years, the clinic continued to remove the tattoos, but had to begin to charge, she said, at below-market rates.
The clinic continued to bleed red ink with the $60,000 annual operation and now plans to end the program once it removes the tattoos of a handful of clients who are finishing up their treatments, Lawrence said.
"We think it's very important to provide this service to people who are trying to turn their lives around, but we aren't able to find a consistent funding partner," Lawrence said.
Most tattoo parlors steer clear of doing gang-related tattoos out of fear that rival gang members may find out where the work was done, presenting a threat to that business, Escondido tattoo artist Gordo Lost said last week. Most gang tattoos are done by someone in the gang member's neighborhood, or in jail, he added.
'Job-stoppers'
Once gang members are out of prison or decide to go straight, the past can haunt those who bear ink on their skin, especially if the tattoo is somewhere that is visible even when fully clothed.
Tattoos on the forearms, hands or face are called "job-stoppers," said Lost, who owns Escondido's Good Neighbor Tattoo. While covering up gang-related tattoos is an option, even tattoos that have nothing to do with gangs can make it difficult to find work, he said, adding that he often advises would-be clients not to get tattooed on parts of their body that are visible to potential employers.
Take Juan Rivera, 24, who has been a member of an Oceanside Latino gang. On the outside of one of his forearms, 12 is tattooed in four-inch-long blue numerals. On the other forearm is 13, which in the alphabet represents the letter "M." The 12 stands for "L."
Together, the letters stand for the gang he has belonged to, Mesa Locos, he said recently. Rivera also has the word "Mesa" tattooed in six-inch-long old-English letters across his stomach, another Mesa tattoo on the back of his head and 15 other tattoos on various parts of his body, including his neck and fingers.
Some of the body art he had done in jail, others he had done by friends while growing up in the Libby Lake area of Oceanside.
Released from prison about four months ago after serving a 19 months for auto theft, Rivera said he is doing his best to leave gang life behind. That's why he moved out of Oceanside and is now living in Vista with friends as he looks for full-time work, he said.
But, "it's hard to find a job on my own cause of my record and because of my tattoos," Rivera said, adding that he now works part time for his girlfriend's father.
Despite the problems his tattoos are causing him and knowing that he needs to have them removed, Rivera said there is no way he could afford to pay for it right now.
School of the streets
Tattoo artist Obed Mejia of Escondido Body Art, said last week that he was a gang member in San Marcos many years ago, but later left gang life behind. He said he got his first lessons in tattooing from an uncle who had just gotten out of prison and knew the techniques.
"Most neighborhoods have a homeboy who will buy a (tattoo) machine or make his own out of a guitar string, a pen and a toy motor -- it's real easy," Mejia said.
Homeboy is slang that can refer to a fellow gang member.
In the beginning, Mejia said, he used to go into rough neighborhoods and offer to give homemade tattoos. Often they were gang-related, he said.
He wasn't trying to make a living at it in those days, he said.
"People would bring me a 12-pack and I would do their tattoo," Mejia said, adding that making a mistake on a tattoo was not an option.
"If I messed up somebody's tattoo, there were guys around me with guns and something was going to happen," he said. "I did a real good job."
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.
