A Virginia tattoo shop is offering to cover up racist or insensitive tattoos for free.
Jeremy Mummert of Fredericksburg got a tattoo of the Confederate flag 15 years ago.
“I don’t want to say a product of our environment, but it’s what we were, what we thought we were,” he said.
He got the flag covered with an eagle Tuesday at Electric Pair O’ Dice Tattoo.
“It’s not me anymore,” Mummert said. “It’s not what I believe in. It doesn’t represent who I am as a person anymore.”
His 8-year-old daughter, Madison, is biracial.
“It’s hard to explain to an 8-year-old that it’s once something that daddy believed represented him,” Mummert said.
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Electric Pair O’ Dice Tattoo owner Jeremiah Hirsch said with all the racial injustice in the country, he felt called to help people who want to help themselves.
“Either you evolve or you repeat, and I think we’re tired of seeing this repeated injustice and things that are going on,” he said.
One hundred percent of any tips for covering up the tattoos are donated to the NAACP.
Since the tattoo shop started offering this work, the requests have been pouring in, Hirsch said.
He plans to find other local charities to support, in addition to the NAACP.
