Some bad news coming out of Los Angeles this week for former gang members looking to erase the marks of their past. Sunrise Community Outreach in Westlake had its front window smashed this past Friday and when police arrived they found that SCO’s $50,000 Palomar Q-YAG 5 laser system was gone.
Sunrise Community Outreach is a non-profit organization which provides affordable tattoo removal for former gang members. About 200 people are aided by the organization each year, but now that the laser removal system has been stolen, it looks like SCO might be finished. Adding insult to injury, the laser was not insured, as the SCO’s executive director, Rosemarie Ashamalla says that SCO’s status as a non-profit organization made insuring the laser more difficult.
Not sure who would do something like this, but like Ashamalla says, “This is not something you take to a local pawnbroker.” Either someone has a lot of tattoos that they want to get rid of, or they know someone who’ll pay for such equipment. Either way, it seems like a pretty brutal blow to an organization that was helping people get their lives on track.