Updated September 27, 2025 at 05:00 AM ET
Ten years ago, professional tattoo artist Brian Finn decided to use his talents to help people — by providing free or reduced cost tattoos on his day off for people with scars caused by trauma
"It just kind of hit me one day that I had the tools to do something to help people. So, I kind of rolled with it," Finn says.
NPR first spoke with Finn in 2015 when he started tattooing clients on his day off.
After that interview, he says, the requests started pouring in. He's done thousands of tattoos for people wanting to cover up scars from domestic abuse, human trafficking, self-harm and more. Finn, who has been tattooing for more than 30 years, says tattoos carry different meanings for everyone.
"Some people, you know, they want to cover up a scar with a tattoo so they can't see it. But there's a lot of people, too, that came in … they wanted to kind of highlight it," he says. "Everybody's different. And I think both are great ideas and just a different approach depending on what you want to do."
He says after our 2015 interview, the requests were not just coming from potential customers.
He offers advice to tattoo artists who want to offer a similar service. And he's found a community of like minded artists. "There's people that reached out from all across the world, different tattoo shops, different tattooers saying: 'Hey, I heard that on NPR. I'm kind of following suit and I'm doing the same thing.'"
Finn says that the work hasn't always been easy. When he first started, he wasn't anticipating the emotional toll.
"Emotionally, it was … there was a lot of pain to hear on a daily basis," he says, recounting working with people who have experienced trauma.
"The only thing that's really changed is that I think it's less overwhelming … hearing everybody's story all at once was more than I expected."
Ten years on, Finn says he plans to keep going.
"I don't see any reason to stop," he says.
"It's nice to help people out."
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