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A man displays a Ku Klux Klan cross tattooed onto his arm during the 11th Annual Nathan Bedford Forrest Birthday march held by the Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan July 11, 2009 in Pulaski, Tennessee. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Residents of one Canadian city with troublesome tattoos they regret getting or did not willingly get in the first place got some good news Tuesday. Grim City Tattoo Club in Hamilton, Ontario announced it will offer free, unconditional laser removal of racist tattoos, human trafficking branding and other reminders of people’s traumatic pasts, CBC reported.

The announcement was made on the tattoo parlor’s Instagram page. It promises the establishment will do what it can within realistic limits to remove tattoos featuring racist imagery, human trafficking brands, chemotherapy marks and anything else of that sort.

 

No catch. We will remove the tattoo completely* at no cost to the person receiving treatment. No matter how big or how visible. Please share this message to friends, family, neighbours and let's help people move on from their pasts. Email us at Contactus@grimcitytattooclub.com Call us at 905-544-1222 or 905-312-9000 Or stop by, seven days a week to find out more, book the consultation and book your removal. *In rare cases a tattoo or mark may not remove completely due to circumstances beyond our control. We will discuss this as we go in the case we see this being a possibility. ⚠️ **our Laser can not remove scarring. We would be happy to work with you to cover up scars with a tattoo, and will happily work with your budgets. ⚠️ it has come to our attention we made an error in wording - chemotherapy marks we refer to are from radiation. Apologies. ⚠️ This is for situations of human trafficking or gang related tattoos that were done without consent. Tattoos from gang life that a person has left or hate tattoos that a person has changed since getting. Not bad tattoos that you regret or dislike.

A post shared by Grim City Tattoo Club (@grimcityoriginal) on

The shop’s co-owner Memphis Cadeau told CBC that her inbox was flooded after the announcement with several hundred emails requesting the service. A significant number of people may have, for example, gone down a dark path earlier in life that resulted in them permanently marking themselves with Nazi symbolism or other white supremacist marks. People who have been trafficked could have also been branded with tattoos as part of that process, as something of a sign of ownership.

Offers like this and a similar one made by a Maryland tattoo shop in 2017 are a boon to people with tattoos they wish they did not have. The procedure can normally be exorbitantly expensive and excruciatingly painful, more than the initial tattoo application, per CBC.

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