Amazing story: Racist skinhead erases hate from his face

[Cappy]

This brought tears to my eyes. Many people,even here, could lear a thing or two from this man.

A FORMER racist skinhead has put himself through months of pain to erase the hate tattooed on his face.

Bryon Widner and his wife Julie were pillars of the white power movement when they first met - she a member of the National Alliance, he a founder of the Vinlanders gang of skinheads in Ohio.

People grabbed their children when Mr Widner swaggered into a store, and lowered their voices when he entered a restaurant.

He had symbols of racist violence carved into his face and the letters HATE stamped across the knuckles of his right hand. "Blood & Honour" was tattooed across his neck, "Thug Reich" across his belly, swastikas adorned his shaved scalp. On his forehead, a thick, black, upward-pointing arrow symbolised his willingness to die for his race.

But after getting married in 2006, and settling down together to raise Mrs Widner's three children from a former marriage, and a child of their own, the couple started to question their racist beliefs.

"It was like overnight he went from being a drunk, a skinhead and a fighter, to being this kind, nurturing father and husband," Mrs Widner says. "He was amazing."

Mr Widner mailed his 'patch' back to his skinhead clan and threw his racist belongings into a bonfire.

But he knew he still had to wiped the tattoos from his face. He was shunned on job sites, in stores and restaurants. People saw a menacing thug, not a loving father.

Mrs Widner was terrified - afraid her husband would do something reckless, even disfigure himself.

"We had come so far," she says. "We had left the movement, had created a good family life. We had so much to live for."

The couple had scoured the internet trying to learn how to safely remove the facial tattoos. But few doctors have performed such complicated surgery and it would have been prohibitively expensive.

So Widner began investigating homemade recipes. He reached the point, he said, where "I was totally prepared to douse my face in acid."

In desperation, Julie did something that once would have been unimaginable. She reached out to a black man.

Daryle Lamont Jenkins runs an anti-hate group in Philadelphia. He suggested the Widners contact T.J. Leyden, a former neo-Nazi skinhead Marine who had left the movement in 1996. In turn, Mr Leyden told him to call the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"It was like the Osama Bin Laden of the movement calling in." says Joseph Roy, chief investigator of hate and extreme groups for the SPLC.

"Very rarely have we met a reformed racist skinhead," says Mr Roy.

Mr Roy had dubbed Mr Widner the "pit bull" of skinheads. "No one was more aggressive, more confrontational, more notorious," he said.

And yet, over several weeks of conversations, he became convinced the couple genuinely wanted redemption.

So Mr Roy asked his organisation to find a donor to pay for Mr Widner's tattoos to be surgically removed. The donor, a longtime supporter of the SPLC, had been moved by Mr Widner's story - and shocked by photographs of his face.

"For him to have any chance in life and do good," she said, "I knew those tattoos had to come off."

She agreed to fund the $US35,000 ($32,400) surgery.

Dr. Bruce Shack, who chairs the Department of Plastic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, saw in Mr Widner one of the biggest challenges of his career.

He used a laser pen to trace the tattoos and burned them off Mr Widner's face. It took many sessions for the ink to fade.

"You are going to feel like you have the worst sunburn in the world, your face will swell up like a prizefighter, but it will eventually heal," Dr Shack warned Mr Widner.

Mr Widner said he had never felt such pain, in bar brawls or prison fights.

"I was real whiny during that time," he says.

"He was real brave," says Mrs Widner

After a couple of sessions, Dr Shack decided that Mr Widner was in too much pain: The only way to continue was to put him under general anesthetic for every hour-and-a-half operation. In all he underwent 25 surgeries over the course of 16 months, on his face, neck and hands.

The couple had agreed to allow a film crew to follow Widner through his surgeries. Mr Widner said he hoped some angry young teenager on the verge of becoming a skinhead would see Mr Widner's suffering and think twice.

After a recent screening of the documentary in California, a black woman embraced Mr Widner in tears. "I forgive you," she cried.

Mr Widner's arms and torso are still extensively tattooed. He is in the process of inking over the "political" ones, like the Nazi lightning bolts. But his face is clean and scar free, and he has a shock of thick black hair.

His neck and hands have suffered some pigment damage, he gets frequent migraine headaches and he has to stay out of the sun. But, he says, "it's a small price to pay for being human again."

 

[LiLWaynE]

tears to your eyes?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

that comment brought tears to MY eyes also.................. from laughing so hard at your comment!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[supermanlives]

lesson to idiots out there is dont tat your face

 

[Cappy]

Ironically enough, my N is sticking...

 

[LiLWaynE]

its like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife huh cappy

 

[AOD2012]

Yea, that guy probably did so muc fucked up shit to people in his life. Haha, I hate judgin a book by its cover, but.......yea sorry Lil WAyne i laughed just as hard for the same reason. Yea instead of this dude living his life with the consequences of his actions, he gets to get all his tats removed for free. nice



aod

 

[Peanut Butter]

Nah, see, we don't like that. We like our Nazis in uniform. That way we can spot 'em just like that. We're gonna give you a little something you cant take off.

 

[OverEagerBeaver]

Hmmm the amazing part of this story was the person that donated 35k so that fucktard could get a fresh start. I'm all for redemption so I dont want to take too big a shit on fuckface but 35k could feed an awful lot of people, cloth a lotta poor children this winter too...just sayin

 

[FreezerBoy]

I think it's a cool story. He may not have paid the money but @ 25 surgeries over 16 months he's paying the price. Always good to see evolution at work.

 

[wilbur]

well, it's an amzing world is it not? full of IRONY, I 'd say.

 

[purple_man]

high famz!

while reading this, i couldn't stop thinking bout inglorious bastards, ... when brad is asking the nazi if he is going to keep on wearing the uniform when he returns home...

blessss

 

[ThePizzaMan]

The bottom left pic looks like Bill Murray!

 

[growinthehills]

The bottom left pic looks like Bill Murray!

haha...


i agree that the money could have be used on more important things like clothes, food, etc...
but still good to see someone reform their ways

 

[Stoner4Life]

I had a laser surgeon ~ tattoo specialist in my taxi one night who explained to me that the older the tattoo the easier it is to remove, fresh tats of course being the toughest.......

 

[greenmatter]

i hope he does not get divorced or just have a bad day, nobody will see him coming ........ epiphany is a fragile thing

 

[SetHeh]

I wish I could read more stories like that. What's wrong if someone has a change of heart and starts living in a more positive way? Here is another moving story: War and Forgiveness.

Peace & Love!

 

[LiLWaynE]

the dude was clearly on his way back to being normal..............until he shaved a line in his eyebrow......who the fuck does that?!?!?!?

 

[Han Grolo]

you know lil wayne, i was thinking the same thing..

 

[In~Plain~Site]

Let him hear the war drums beating in the distance, you'll see where his allegiance lies.

People are gullible

 

[Green lung]

You are naive if you think people like that change, he is still the same person on the inside.