Making a Difference

When a victim of human trafficking walks into 3 ravens tattoo and piercing they are greeted by three things: the wash of sunlight from the windows that make up the entire front wall of the parlor, the buzz of a tattoo needle filling up the space, and the warm smile of Jim Mellor.  

“It’s really exciting to talk about, it’s hard at the same time you don’t want to make a public deal out of somebody’s past when it’s a negative entity but that’s the beautiful thing about the other side”

Jim and his wife Devon give free tattoo coverups for victims of human trafficking, a service they have been offering since Redemption Ink, a non-profit that works to connect victims to tattoo parlors in their area, first approached them when they opened in 2018. 

“We were approached and of course you don’t say no to someone representing a non-profit, to doing the right thing and helping people. So that’s how it started.” 

While they initially were talking solely with Redemption Ink, suddenly they were communicating directly with local government agencies and realizing that there was a lot of trafficking in Athens that no one really knew about. 

Mellor says that about every three months there is a new wave of victims coming in the shop. And after two and half years of offering the service he has come to recognize the tattoo of a victim immediately. 

“There’s different symbols, letters and numbers that are affiliation with the, I guess like, this is sad to say, like the ownership of the individual. So, they’re basically being branded like a piece of cattle.”

To the eye of a trained professional like Mellor, the marking can be spotted right away, often behind the ear or neck, on the wrist, hand or collarbone. He says that the tattoos are all on the smaller side, within the size of an apple or smaller and are clearly done outside of a tattoo parlor.

“I would say 90% are pretty awful, so they were probably done in a non-sanitary environment. I wouldn’t think that any tattoo artist in a shop would do it if they knew what it was for, and you can tell by the work.”

Mellor explains that the tattoos are equivalent to body shaming. When a victim comes into the shop, their change in emotion after receiving the coverup are dramatic as the negative marking is covered by something beautiful. 

“Its dramatic. So, when a victim comes in you can feel the excitement and apathy at the same time and the sadness, generally these tattoos have been on them for a long time and they’ve lived with them for a long time. So, it’s kind of like the before and after, the before kind of in the grey zone and the after were kind of looking at the sunset.”

For Mellor and his wife, the service is there way to give back and show the victims that they are not alone, and their community stands behind them. 

“I think it’s an honor to do this kind of work, we are not doing it for anything else except to help people. We don’t ask for donations; we don’t ask for anything. Me and my wife we cover all the expenses and we’ll continue to do it for as long as we physically can.”