The number “7” on Emily’s leg is more than a tattoo. It’s an unhealed scar, the stigma of his past as a victim of sexual exploitation. A branding by the man who committed the nightmare.
This “7” was chosen by a pimp who imposed this tattoo on his victims. A way of claiming these women were his, a common practice among human traffickers.
Emily, 44, whose first name was changed at her request, waits her turn at a Florida tattoo parlor to erase the memory of her 17 miserable years under the rule of pimps.
The salon, run by three women, has agreed to take part in the program of an American NGO, Selah Freedom, which works to cover up these traces of the past.
Everything is ready. Salon owner Charity Pinegar, 40, carefully outlines the heart and cross chosen by Emily.
His story is that of a traumatic childhood without tenderness.
“I only wanted one thing: to be loved,” she says. “Even when I was hurt, I felt like it showed I mattered … and so I fell into the wrong people’s arms.”
One of them is the man who taped the “7” to her ankle.
He convinced her to leave Florida to join him in another state. Emily, in love, saw herself as already married.
But she soon becomes disillusioned. The man starts beating her and she sees him prostituting several women.
However, thanks to the help of her family and the search for a job, Emily manages to escape. But misfortune follows her.
So over the years she meets other violent partners who sell her body and lead her to discover drugs to escape this dark reality.
“I was hooked and ready to do whatever they asked me to do,” she recalls.
Dehumanize
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), at least 6.3 million people were victims of sexual exploitation in 2021. Four out of five were adult or minor women.
The United States has no official data on this subject. But the trafficking helpline received nearly 7,500 calls reporting sexual exploitation in 2021.
For her part, Stacey Efaw, the director of Selah Freedom, assures that the NGO has helped nearly 6,000 victims in Florida since 2011.
The people cared for are accompanied for two years, she explains. They receive psychological support and are helped to escape the pimps’ clutches by offering them a roof, clothing, food and job training.
She also believes that replacing the tattoos is important, since the initial intention of these markings is to “dehumanize” these women.
Breanna Cole, 29, was a beneficiary of the program before she was hired by the NGO.
Her story shares similarities with Emily’s: an unhappy childhood with an absent father who urged her to look elsewhere for love, initially with an abusive young man. He introduced her to drugs at the age of 13 and then pushed her into prostitution to support her addiction.
“He told me if you love me, then you will,” she recalls.
She then sinks into the hellish spiral of infusions and the streets for years. And his other relationships follow the same pattern: that of sexual exploitation.
She finally joined the program in 2017. “I had reached the point of no return, I was mentally broken and I knew I had no choice: I had to change my life or die.”
Through therapy, she learned to accept herself and understand that she deserved to be saved. And she realized that she could help other women who had been there.
” I’m alive “
Charity Pinegar, the tattoo artist, has completed the outline and is now filling in the heart with black ink. His fine needle pierces the skin of Emily, who clenches her teeth.
Photo CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
Emily’s fate changed when a police officer rescued her and dropped her off at the NGO.
“It was hard getting used to being loved without expecting anything in return,” she explains.
Since then, she has reconciled with her family and found love. She works in a gardening company, is married and the mother of three children, she says with laughter and tears, with bare nerves.
Charity Pinegar has completed her work. She wipes the tattoo with a gauze and covers it with a clear plastic sheet.
Photo CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
Photo CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
Emily still seems to be watching her with some anxiety, as if the menacing “7” was still there.
And then she pauses and says, “I used to feel like I was dead, and now I’m alive.”
Photo CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP