Erasing the ‘Ownership’ Tattoos on Sex-Trafficking Victims

March 21, 2017

(The Atlantic) – The plastic surgeon offers free tattoo removals for sex-trafficking survivors. Picoway, the company that makes his tattoo-removal lasers, arranges their transportation. Leon was undergoing a second round of treatment to obliterate a mark made on her by one of her pimps. The tattoo reads “Smitty,” the street name of a former trafficker, and a sign to other pimps that she was his property. Nearly all of the women Leon worked with had them. Like her, many survivors are seeking out an array of charitable tattoo cover-up and removal services.