Will CA be next to offer Ink of Hope for trafficking victims?

Nashville tattoo artist English Cousins felt something was off from the outset.

It was early in her career at a tattoo shop in South Carolina when the couple came in looking for a particular bit of ink.

“It was kind of a different vibe, but I thought it was just maybe a little relationship drama,” Cousins says.

Her protocol has always been to speak to the client directly, but no matter how much she tried the man persistently intervened to speak on her behalf. When Cousins shared a sample tattoo design with the woman, it was the man who approved it.

The woman told Cousins she previously had the same man’s name tattooed on her.

“I remember having a sinking feeling in my heart at the moment thinking ‘oh man, this might be a tumultuous kind of relationship, like an on again and off again, go through this honeymoon stage, these grand gestures or something like that,’” Cousins says.

It was only after she moved to Tennessee and started working at a shop that had a partnership with the organization End Slavery Now that she realized the woman was likely a victim of human trafficking who was being branded by her trafficker.

It is not a rare occurrence. Branding has in fact become commonplace in human trafficking.

In 2022, 40 anti-trafficking organizations were surveyed as part of a study which concluded that approximately 47 percent of trafficking survivors were branded by their traffickers. Traffickers often use tattoos and other visible markings to control their victims, to show they are the property of the trafficker or even to indicate a price for sex.

Tennessee has since become the first state to mandate tattoo operators or artists receive human trafficking awareness training. That bill (TN SB 0171), known as The Ink of Hope Act, requires the training to be completed by anyone having or renewing a license by December 31, 2028.

More states could soon follow, including California, where lawmakers this year will consider similar legislation (AB 1918) introduced by Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach). Under Dixon’s bill, new tattoo artists would need to have undergone the training before having their state registration application approved. Artists registered before Jan 1, 2027 or those renewing a license would have until Jan 1, 2030.

“The more we can all collectively as a country do things to fight human trafficking, the better.”

If Dixon’s bill becomes law, tattoo artists would join a long list of professionals required to be trained in spotting signs of human trafficking, including first responders, healthcare workers, educators, hospitality staff, transportation workers, social workers and more.

Tennessee Senator Becky Massey (R-Knoxville), the law’s primary sponsor, acknowledges that her bill alone can’t solve every problem related to human trafficking, but said even incremental steps are valuable in the effort to combat the practice.

“The more we can all collectively as a country do things to fight human trafficking, the better,” she said.

A similar bill (HB 2427) was introduced earlier this year in Washington.

Rep. Alicia Rule (D-District 42), one of the bill’s two primary authors, said a visit to a recovery center for trafficking survivors in her district inspired her to do more to help victims.

“Something that really struck me was when one of the survivors said, ‘when you are being trafficked, you have very little interaction with anybody who is not your trafficker.’”

The survivor emphasized how isolated she had felt, telling Rule she barely had contact with anyone and when she did it was always very brief.

Rule said this made her realize how important it was that more people likely to have contact with a potential victim be able to recognize the signs of human trafficking.

“If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you might not notice,” Rule said.

Anti-trafficking advocates in California hope this state follows Tennessee’s lead.

“I’m encouraged by states like Tennessee that do stuff like this because it does get kind of heavy to be in a state that pushes back on such basic things like making child sex trafficking a serious felony,” said Amie Ichikawa, one of the founding members of Woman II Woman, a resource hub for incarcerated women who are reentering society in California.

Ichikawa expressed her disappointment in lawmakers’ response to 2023’s SB14, a bill authored by Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) that made human trafficking of a minor a serious felony in California. The measure passed unanimously in the Senate but then was initially blocked by Democrats in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. That drew the attention of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who publicly noted his support for the bill. Dems on the committee subsequently reversed course and SB 14 eventually made its way to Newsom, who signed it into law.

“It shouldn’t be political.  It’s a human rights crisis.  It should never be so politicized and polarized,” Ichikawa said. “California is the most prominent state that is resistant and reluctant to unanimously agree that issues like human sex trafficking is a human rights crisis.”

USC lecturer Dr. Stephany Powell, a renowned anti-trafficking educator and a former police sergeant, believes the training required under bills like Dixon’s are a necessity.

“Tattoo artists are so important in terms of training,” she says. “Maybe they never come in contact with this type of client, but what it does do is that it gives them the opportunity to know what human trafficking is and be able to share that information in their own personal lives.”

She says victims of human trafficking often have a deeply engrained belief that they are somehow responsible for their own situation and do not see themselves as being exploited. It is very rare, she says, for trafficking victims to self-identify as such even to the police. That, she says, makes it all the more important for others to be able to spot the signs.

“California is the most prominent state that is resistant and reluctant to unanimously agree that issues like human sex trafficking is a human rights crisis.”

It is knowledge that needs to be out there says Noel Gomez, a trafficking survivor and the co-founder of the Organization for Prostitution Survivors OPS in Seattle. Gomez also holds a leadership role at WASE FORWARD, Washington Against Sexual Exploitation.

Gomez says she and other victims were tattooed with the same name and in the same place.  Even though she says it was very clear they were being branded by their trafficker, the tattoo artist failed to respond. She believes it was likely because they were uncertain how to address the situation.

She testified in support of the Washington bill in hope the mandated training would help others in the future.

“It could actually save lives,” she says.

That opportunity won’t come this year as WA HB 2427 failed to get out of the House Committee on Postsecondary Education & Workforce. Rule said she plans to bring the proposal back next year.

Meanwhile, in California Dixon’s bill (AB 1918) has a hearing scheduled in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 7^th.

Jasleen Kaur is an intern with Capitol Weekly’s Public Policy Journalism Internship program. 

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