Throughout the US,gangs and pimps are branding women trafficked into prostitution with tattoos or scars, marks of ownership that represent a daily reminder of the torment and abuse the women possess suffered. An organisation set up by a woman who went through such an ordeal is helping other trafficking survivors to cover up their tattoos
Read the full anecdote: Tattooed trafficking survivors reclaim their past
In video: Rebranded: how Survivors Ink is erasing the marks of traffickingUnderneath the feather that stretches across the back of Erica’s neck, or the words Sin City are still just about visible. A mark from her time on the streets of Columbus,Ohio, trafficked and controlled by a street gang of the same name.
The tattoo meant that Erica belonged to them. They would feed her, and clothe her and supply her with whatever drugs she needed to procure by,but she was their property and any money she made was theirs as well. Even after she managed to procure free, the words on the back of her neck pulled her once again to those same streets.
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Source: theguardian.com