A South Florida tattoo artist says he’s seen an increase in customers wanting to cover their tattoos that could be associated with gangs amid the Trump administration deportations.
A South Florida tattoo artist said he’s seen an increase in customers wanting to cover their tattoos that could be associated with gangs amid the Trump administration deportations.
Court filings show the government used an immigration scorecard for Venezuelan deportations and relied on social media and tattoos.
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WATCH HERETattoos that have common images like a crown or a rose.
"But it is my responsibility as a tattoo artist to tell you that people have been targeted, that it's real, it's happening, it's happening and it's maybe not the best time," Diego Vega said.
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Vega is a tattoo artist in Doral, a city with a high concentration of Venezuelans.
He said he’s recently seen clients coming in wanting to cover or remove certain tattoos in light of the current immigration climate.
"I remember having a father that wanted to do a family tattoo," he said. "He did his wife's name and then his daughter and then his son, and then his wife and his daughter, her daughter's name on top of it, he did a little crown because he used to say that was his queen and his princess."
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Vega considers a crown a pretty innocent tattoo but it can also be associated with the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The Trump administration is targeting those gang members as part of his immigration crackdown.
Recently, nearly 200 migrants were deported to El Salvador.
Since then, Vega said that the father who got the crown tattoo came back to take it off.
"Like they did that crown to represent the family and he came to cover up because his father was super paranoid and he, they were just afraid," he said. "They just didn't want to have that. They didn't want any trouble, so they had a cover."
Other common images associated with the gang are roses, stars, and trains.
"Wouldn't get a train right now but the roses the stars, they are pretty common tattoos," he said. "You know people are starting to become fearful about getting those types of elements started."
