She got her first tattoo at age 15 at a house party - a scripted “FAITH” on her wrist. Leah Lee doesn’t have gang tattoos and hasn’t been in trouble, but the VMC employee volunteered to serve as a demonstration model for the laser unveiling event. “The old one was 10 times more painful and they’d go over the tattoo three times as many times,” said Esparza, who now works for Clean Slate and also studies communications at Cal State East Bay. Rebecca Esparza, a 23-year-old who joined Clean Slate after having an epiphany as an incarcerated teen - she didn’t want grow up to be a gangster like her family - said the new laser is a major improvement. “A lot of times there would be bad bruising and bleeding, a lot more scarring - we’d use Lidocaine to numb the area.” “Twenty-five years ago it was very slow, and very painful,” he said. He said the new technology makes for a much more pleasant session than what was available when Clean Slate started. A tattoo that might have taken 20 treatments to remove can now be done in 12. Jack Ackerman, who has been removing tattoos at Valley Medical Center for nearly a decade, said it not only cuts the amount of time per session but also chops the number of visits down considerably. With the new laser, doctors can see more people who will need fewer treatments. “For survivors of human trafficking who have been so brutalized it brings healing to remove a symbol that’s a stigma and a reminder of a very traumatic part of their lives.” “This beautiful laser is going to be such a benefit to enrollees,” she said. Mary Benson, who founded Clean Slate while working as a volunteer to rid East San Jose neighborhoods of a gang infestation in the 1990s, said she is “overjoyed” that the new technology will mean expanding the base of clientele. More than 2,000 have since gone through the program, which in addition to tattoo removal includes case management and peer counseling to put them on a path toward shedding a self-destructive former life. It’s the third laser to be used in the Clean Slate program that was founded in 1994 with a mission of helping gang members by removing their tattoos. The $300,000 laser was acquired through a partnership between the county, San Jose and the Valley Medical Center Foundation, which collected money from private donors.
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“Not only do we need to help these people transform through new kinds of programs, we also need to help them transform physically as well.”
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“Victims of human trafficking are literally tattooed or branded with the name of the person who has enslaved them,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. 6 riotĪnd officials want to take their new laser and aim it at a vulnerable population - survivors of human trafficking. With gun violence on the rise, Oakland ends the year with 134 homicidesĬonspiracy theories paint fraudulent reality of Jan. Man shot to death Saturday night in Oakland Rhonert Park police arrest man on suspicion of possessing stolen gun, endangering children SAN JOSE - Up on the fourth floor of the Valley Specialty Center, there’s a new machine called a PicoWay, a state-of-the-art laser blaster that scours flesh clean of tattoos faster and less painfully than its predecessors.įBI use-of-force database at risk amid low participation Tattoo removal: Human trafficking victims latest clients Close Menu