'A healing process': Winnipeg tattoo removal technician helps ex-gang members feel free

A Winnipeg tattoo removal technician is helping former gang members leave the lifestyle behind.

Della Steinke, owner of Mother Ink Tattoo Removal, started offering laser treatment – free of charge –eight years ago while she was working at a halfway house in Winnipeg.

“I had one kid come out of Stony Mountain [Penitentiary] and he was terrified to leave the yard,” Steinke told CTV News. “He knew he was going to get jumped back into his gang, or you know, still had that problem of possibly getting jumped by another gang because he had a very noticeable gang sign tattooed on his neck.”

Steinke estimates she’s done over a million dollars' worth of free work since, removing gang symbols and script.

“I’ve worked on over 300 ex-gang members and I still have a personal relationship with at least 75 per cent of them,” Steinke said.

Steinke said laser tattoo removal – which can cost thousands of dollars – is a painful, but quick process. The laser pulls the ink towards the surface and breaks it down. Each sitting only lasts a couple minutes, however, it can take several sessions for the tattoo to disappear.

”I’m not going to lie – when they ask me, ‘does it hurt’ --- absolutely. I think it hurts 10 times more than getting the tattoo on,” Steinke said.

Over the past eight years, she’s offered tattoo removal to ex-gang members out of other businesses, but recently moved into her own space on Sargent Avenue --- thanks to a partnership with the Spence Neighbourhood Association.

The association helped her secure provincial funding for the program, which means she can focus on free tattoo removal full-time. The partnership also means Steinke can help provide counselling and access to social services to her clients.

“If they trust me enough to take the tattoo off, hopefully they’ll trust me enough to help them, you know, do other things in their life,” Steinke explained. "Sometimes it’s a life-changer for them to be able to have their own apartment, their own job, different things like that."

Steinke said she often sits down with clients for a half-hour before getting down to business.

“Every stage is a healing process, it seems,” she said.

But every step is rewarding.

“The nice thing is when I have guys come to me and say, for the first time, they went to the beach this summer and were able to take their shirt off because they never wanted their kids to see their tattoos.”

Her next goal is to expand services into the prison system – while potential clients are still incarcerated.

"If I can start working on them 6 months to a year before they get out, it would just save them so much heartache and everything else later down the road.”

She said there are also plans in the works to visit remote communities with her gear.

More information on Mother Ink Tattoo Removal can be found online.