Seattle Post Intelligencer
As Central American officials fight increasingly violent gangs, many current and former members are responding by hiding their tattooed insignia, getting rid of them or discouraging recruits from getting visible body art.
A cottage industry of private clinics has grown up in El Salvador around tattoo removal. Some charge hundreds of dollars, but a few nonprofit organizations will do it for a token sum. The U.S. Embassy here even gave a local program $85,000 for a laser tattoo-removal machine.
Tattoos have become synonymous with gangs and violence - tombstones and crosses remembering fallen members, skulls that often signify drug use, elaborate drawings of other gang members, necklacelike inscriptions across the collarbone saying "Forgive me, mother, for my crazy life."
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