REDLANDS - The roomful of felons, tattooed on their necks and faces, could have been a tough audience.
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William Vasta / The Press-Enterprise
Alan Ho, of Humble Enhancements, in partnership with the Redlands' Police and Corrections Team, will remove tattoos for parolees at 50-75 percent the rate he charges other customers. Gang and prison tattoos often stigmatize parolees looking for jobs and trying to leave their former lives behind.
For Alan Ho, it was the perfect one.
Bursting to the front of a recent parolee check-in, the fast-talking laser technician let everyone know of his burgeoning partnership with the Redlands Police and Corrections Team, or PACT.
Gang or prison tattoos making it tough for you to get a job? Ho would be happy to remove them.
"If you have just a little teardrop here," Ho said, pointing under his eye, "$35."
Never mind that in many gangs, a teardrop tattoo means you have killed a person.
The purpose of Ho connecting his Humble Enhancements tattoo-removal service with police isn't to judge those who want his service. Any parolee willing to improve his life by getting a tattoo removed is welcome, police said.
In the six months Ho has been coming to Redlands parolee meetings and taking referrals, six ex-gang members have gone through with the procedure.
They have been referred through Redlands' PACT, which coordinates regular parole status checks through the state Department of Corrections. Parolees living in Redlands come to regular meetings at police headquarters to speak with their parole officer instead of traveling to the corrections office in San Bernardino.
The ones who have hooked up with Ho pay about 50 percent to 75 percent less than he would normally charge for tattoo removal. Ho said the discount is given with the knowledge that a business normally associated with the beauty/plastic surgery field is doing good.
"This is not stuff that works well at a job interview," Ho said of some of the tattoos he's removed, including gang symbols on necks and devil's horns on someone's forehead. "It symbolizes they don't fit in."
After giving his pitch, Ho returned to a table that he had set up at the back of the parolee check-in.
When Nikki Palmer had gotten his drug test and met with a parole officer, he stopped by to say hello. The 45-year-old Redlands resident had met Ho in 2004 after serving 18 years on a voluntary-manslaughter conviction.
Finally, he said, he was ready to erase the tattoos he got behind bars. Palmer, who had to get back to his job at a local distribution company, said that the "STAR" tattoo on each of his forearms was not something he proudly shows people.
"That's why, in the course of business," Palmer said, yanking down on the black sleeves that had been rolled up during his check-in, "I do this."
The tattoos, which he said illustrated his original goals of becoming a movie star after he left Texas, were now concealed. Getting them permanently removed is just one of the things Redlands police said they can offer their parolees to make sure they don't slip back into old habits.
"Tattoos that are visible to potential employers frequently stand as obstacles to their gainful employment," said Redlands Police Chief James Bueermann. "And if they don't become gainfully employed, they will find other ways to gain the things they want."
Officer Stephen Starr, who runs Redlands' PACT, said most of the parolees he deals with are forced to work in jobs such as construction and ditch digging.
But if they show a desire to do things such as remove their tattoos, they stand a better chance of finding something more secure, he added.
"That's an active step they can take to show they're serious about wanting to change," Starr said.
"And we're just giving them the option."
Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com
