Tattoo removal programme gives ex-offenders a clean slate

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/tattoo-removal-programme-gives-ex-offenders-clean-slate?singlepage=true

His interview for the post of a retail sales assistant seemed to be going well, until Mr Mohamad Iswandy Aziz declared that he had a visible tattoo on his left forearm. Things seemed to go downhill from there.

He was not surprised when he did not get the job and the former drug offender believed that his tattoo of a devil’s face was the reason several other job interviews also ended in failure.

However, thanks to the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association’s (SANA) tattoo-removal programme, the 31-year-old no longer sports the tattoo on his arm and he feels as if he has been given a new lease of life.

“It has boosted my morale because now I can go anywhere freely,” said the father of two young girls, adding that, in the past, he would sometimes get stopped by patrol cars and screened.

Mr Iswandy is among the first 18 beneficiaries of the SANA programme, which was launched last August to help former drug offenders who wish to remove the tattoos on their bodies, but cannot afford the high cost of laser treatment.

This year, SANA has teamed up with the National Skin Centre (NSC) to provide subsidies to 80 more ex-offenders over the next two years, as a part of the NSC’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

The ex-offenders will have to pay only S$12 to S$15 for a tattoo-removal session, which would usually cost between S$400 and S$500.

A 2.4km charity walk, which hopes to raise S$50,000 for the project, will be held at Gardens by the Bay on Saturday. Mr Iswandy, who is now a logistics assistant at a warehouse, said his manager had been very supportive throughout the tattoo-removal process, which took about a year and 10 sessions.

“We, too, have feelings. We also need to earn a living and need people’s support to change,” said the sole breadwinner of his family.