PHOTOGRAPHER EDITS OUT EX-GANG MEMBERS TATTOOS FOR A NEW START

[ReedeFox]

Photographer Steven Burton has recently released a series of photos titled Skin Deep where he removes tattoos from ex-gang members to show the person beneath.



It took Steven two years to create the series and a whopping 400 hours on Photoshop. He is now appealing to people via Kickstarter so he can gain the funds to turn his series into a book titled Skin Deep: Looking Beyond the Tattoos.

When I started Skin Deep I had a simple concept: take portraits of heavily tattooed ex-gang members and remove the tattoos using digital re-touching to create before and after portraits.

These images inspire personal insight from the subjects and elicit questions of how we as a society perceive and judge those with tattoos and how this stigma goes so far as to influence these former gang member’s perception of themselves.

Most of the homeboys/girls hadn’t seen themselves without tattoos for decades, so during the interviews, I presented the images. There was a deep emotional response by the subjects.

To back Stevens campaign and for a chance to receive one of the first copies of the book check out Stevens Kickstarter page:



Steven wants to show people that ex gang members aren't always the evil beings people portray them as:

This book puts a very human face on a group of people that our society is so often too quick to demonize.