Pietro Pozzi
English 1109 @ 1:30-3:30
11/17/2020
Research Response Exercise
The profile that I am going to analyze is about Dawn Maestas, Ink Removal Specialist. Her ex-boyfriend violently abused of her, she came out of that situation and used it as an experience for doing good in people that struggled or are struggling with domestic violence. After her toxic relationship she found her passion in tattoo removal, the first tattoo she removed was the name of her husband that he tattooed on her. Now, she helps other women that were in her situation by removing their tattoos for free. Nicole, one of her patience that struggled with domestic violence too, said: “The first time you removed one of my tattoos, I was just like, Wow. I don’t feel like prisoner in my body anymore. Each time you removed one, I felt like I was taking ownership of my myself again. I wasn’t a prisoner in my body anymore, and that felt good” (Isay, 164).
Dawn went away from her abusive husband when she was 28 years old, for the next ten years she tried to get her head straight and she studied to be an aesthetician. Just before she took her board exams, she saw a TV program about laser removal, immediately signed up for a class, she fell in love with it and she has been doing it ever since. Dawn removes tattoos for free for people that cannot afford to pay for it, because today some jobs don’t hire you because you have tattoos on your body. She developed a system to organize this tattoos removal, as she says: “It’s offered to the first 10 people who call on the second Tuesday of each month. They will get an appointment for a free tattoo removal on the following Saturday. Although it’s pretty much first-come, first-served, Maestas says she does some weeding out, and the tattoos must be from neck up or wrist down” (Dawn Maestas removes, 1).
This picture, in my opinion, it is already hard to look at it even knowing that is just two actors impersonating in the character for the picture. I can’t imagine how horrifying it would be to live this reality.
I agree with your caption and use of picture to get our attention on this issue. One of the issues with our culture is that there is so much violence and abuse portrayed in "virtual" reality on TV, movies, social media, etc. that actually people are conditioned to see it and not be shocked much less concerned. It has become "normalized" in some facets by repetition and exposure again and again. Once we know that this can happen, we can really start to think about the tragedy of abuse.
ReplyDeleteI feel its pretty interesting that she weeds out the competition for the free removal. I also find it interesting that she only does from the neck up and wrist down for the free one. These are the places we all see if we are working with someone who has tattoos. When I worked at McDaniel we had a couple guys who had tattoos on there arms and they wore sleeves to cover them up. It would be so much better to get them removed in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think since we live in the digital age we see violence in our media more often then what we see in our real life’s and that it desensitizes us to it. I think its amazing how someone from her background has gotten out of her abusive relationship and is helping others for free.
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