Tattoos are permanent, but gang affiliations don’t have to be.
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Tattoo artist Chris Baker is changing lives and brightening futures with his non-profit that transforms tattooed gang signs and barcodes into beautiful designs, helping ex-gang members and human trafficking victims to escape their past.
“I believe everyone deserves a second chance at life, and I want to offer them help to live their second chance,” says Baker.
Get this, the program, called Ink 180, does it FOR FREE!
According to Buzzfeed:
As a former warehouse manager, Baker heard many of his employee’s regrets about joining gangs. When he was laid off from his lucrative job, he relied on tattoo commissions to pay the rent. He became a youth pastor, and though he earned much less than before, he was inspired to create Ink 180 and began covering tattoos for former members of the Latin Kings, Black Disciples and Aryan Nation.
Soon, donors began to approach him, and law enforcement wanted him to help with sex trafficking victims, mostly women whose pimps branded them with scannable barcodes. Baker was surprised to hear that this happened in the suburbs of Chicago.
“The first time you hear about it, you can’t go back to being naive,” he told the Naperville Sun.
Baker’s list of clients range from countless trafficked women, as well as people such as a 19-year-old barred from joining the army, and former drug dealer who wanted to quit the job he’s been doing since he was 8-years-old.
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In order to protect them, Baker doesn’t release the before and after photos of actual gang work covered. But check out the photos to see how he does some of his “safer” cover-ups.
Keep up the good work!
SOURCE: Buzzfeed
