Getting Rid Of Gang Tattoos

(CBS)  Tattoos used to be exotic. Now, thousands of teens are getting ink done and some are regretting it.

In San Luis Obispo, Calif., one dedicated doctor is donating his time to help erase unwanted body art. But the program still gets federal funding and not everyone thinks it's money well spent. CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith reports.

Imagine your mistakes written in your skin. Former gang members carry reminders of a past they'd rather forget. And, in some cases, they can't move on until the ink comes off.

So, one Sunday a month, they come to the local medical center for a date with a laser. It's not free. They do 16 hours of community service for just one treatment, but they say they'd do anything to erase their mistakes.

One of those teen-agers is Lionel. He has the name of his grandmother Leticia tattooed, but there are others that send the wrong kind of message, like the big one across his back.

Previous laser treatments have all but erased it. And now, Dr. Jeff Herten is preparing to obliterate it for good. He uses a tube with little flashes at the bottom, which are the lasers. It leaves no burns, no scars and before long, no tattoo.

No one said, "No pain."

"It's like getting burned or snapped with a rubber band. Or like hot grease splashing on your skin," Lionel explains.

And having a gang tattoo can hurt in other ways.

"People won't tell you they're not giving you a job because you have a tattoo. But if you reach out to shake someone's hand and you have a tattoo on your wrist, you're not going be first on their interview list," says Anita Broughton, another teen.

But the program itself has come under fire because it's partially supported with federal tax money.

"Compared to the government's other responsibilities -- the war on terrorism, homeland security -- tattoo removal certainly falls way down on the scale of important projects," says Tom Shatz from the Citizens Against Government Waste.

So what does Dr. Herten say to people who ask why should taxpayers pay for some gang member to get his tattoo removed?

"If we keep one of these kids out of prison for a year, we have saved the taxpayers between 30 and 50 thousand dollars. That's one. We're keeping 30, 40, 100 kids out of prison," he says.

And for Dr. Herten and the others who help out at the center, the value of the program far outweighs the cost.

"I work hard, you know, and giving up Sunday's a big deal. But I never go back to work Monday tired. There's a bounce in my step and it's because I've just done what I think is a wonderful thing," he says.