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Orange County Tattoo Removal Program: Changing Lives, One Tattoo at a Time

“Robert” stood in the U.S. Army recruiter’s office looking down at the tattoo on his hand. Army regulations forbid tattoos on a soldier’s hands. In a very real sense, his tattoo was all that stood between Robert and a job he could be proud of, the chance for an education and a way out of the life he had grown to despise.

The tattoo wasn’t even something that Robert had put there himself and learned to regret. It was a tattoo of a marijuana leaf that his abusive father had burned into his hand when he was just 11 years old. Nevertheless, regardless of the cause of the tattoo, the recruiter had no choice but to simply reject him. It was one of the lowest points in Robert’s life.

However, his luck was about to change. Robert saw an advertisement at his local community center for Orange County Probation’s Tattoo Removal Program and called the number. From there, a deputy probation officer listened to Robert’s situation and made sure that he was enrolled in the program.

While several treatments are typically needed, the tattoo on Robert’s hand had lightened enough, after only one treatment, that he was accepted into the Army. “His whole life is going to be different because of this,” said Robert’s aunt after speaking to him in basic training. “For the first time, when talking to him, I heard something wonderful in his voice: direction and more importantly, hope. Hope for a productive and fulfilling future.”

The Orange County Probation Department, in conjunction with Saint Joseph’s Hospital in the city of Orange, has been making stories like Robert’s a reality. Operating on a small scale since 1996, a grant provided by the California Youth Authority two years ago has allowed the program to expand to the point where many more young people in the Orange County community have received low-cost or no-cost tattoo removal treatments in the past two years.

To date, 204 tattoos have been removed from over 100 patients. Each month an average of 11 new patients (one under the age of 18) are admitted into the program. Currently, there are 62 program participants (33 men and 29 women) who receive an average of 188 treatments per month.

The main focus is to remove visible, stigmatizing tattoos that are a barrier to employment or promotional opportunities. Early in this program, a Tattoo Removal Hotline was established where interested community members could call and receive information about the program and enrollment. The hotline was advertised countywide and made its way into many local resource directories. This hotline has proven to be very popular as evidenced by the many calls made to the hotline daily.

A classic success story for this program is “Steven.” He is a long-time recovering alcohol and drug addict. In his mind, he was clean on the inside but not on the outside. “I’d get up in the morning feeling great,” he said. “But the Orange County Probation Tattoo Removal Program and was convinced it was heaven sent. Now, six years and 26 treatments later, Steven has turned his life around. He has a good union job that pays him a better wage than he could have imagined. Perhaps more importantly, his new look and his new job have allowed him to become a stable influence within his family. He credits much of this to the tattoo removal program.

The Orange County Tattoo Removal Program draws between 10 and 20 calls a day from people like Robert and Steven. From these calls, about 30 people attend an enrollment meeting held on the first Monday of every month. Volunteer doctors at a clinic run by Saint Joseph’s Hospital provide the treatment. The treatment all takes place with equipment provided by the Youth Authority. In fact, Orange County is one of four counties that YA has provided with laser tattoo removal machines.

Forty people are on the waiting list for this program. Many people in the program, and on the waiting list, report getting their tattoos at a young age, sometimes even as young as 10 or 11-years-old. They have cited a number of reasons for wanting tattoos removed including to: secure employment; gain a promotion from within their existing employment; enter a new profession; be a good role model for their children; and be more accepted in mainstream society.

Most program participants are steadfastly committed to receiving these services and anxiously await the day they are completely free of their stigmatizing tattoos.