I Cover up Racist Tattoos for Free | Sojourners

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the image shows two hands wearing blue latex gloves doing a tattoo to cover up a Swastika tattoo

Billy White draws a new design to cover a swastika tattoo on a client at Red Rose Tattoo in Zanesville, Ohio. White was featured in the 2018 short film, Beneath the Ink. / Cy Dodson

I Cover up Racist Tattoos for Free

Being part of the process of human growth is better than anything.
September/October 2024
By Billy White

THE DRIVER [WHO killed a counter-demonstrator] at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was from Ohio. I kept thinking “This is the picture people are going to have of people from my area.” I offered to do 10 racist [tattoo] cover-ups for free. We had a large outpouring, and we haven’t stopped. We’ve done hundreds in the past six years.

All kinds of people have approached us: reformed prison inmates, Aryan Brotherhood — dudes and women alike — who got prison racial gang tattoos, almost as a means of survival, and now they’re out; ex-Klan members, ex-white nationalists, and militia party members; people with human trafficking tattoos [or] self-harm scars.

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The image shows a white man wearing a hat that says "Grateful" looking at the camera. He has neck tattoos.
Billy White

Billy White is the owner of Red Rose Tattoo in Zanesville, Ohio. 

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