Tattoos on the Heart Book Review Essays

Tattoo is the act or practice of marking the skin with pictures, legends, etc, by making pictures in it and inserting pigments. Tattoo has been around for many years, it all started in 1991, at first it wasn’t used or view as symbolic but rather used to mark criminals or member is a religious group. In this generation, tattoo has become more popular among people especially adults and it has become more like a fashion.

Outcasts in society are in need of love and compassion. In the book Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle, Father Greg gives gang members an opportunity to better themselves by providing them with jobs. Attention makes gang members realize they are worthy.

Tattoos on the Heart encompasses many themes, but Fr. Boyle predominantly focuses on life and death. In one distinct instance, Fr. Boyle depicts the story of an unnamed sixteen-year-old homegirl who tells him, with such joy, that she is pregnant. Fr. Boyle is unable to hide his disappointment, which leads the homegirl to say “I just want to have a kid before I die.” (90) This narrative was unfamiliar to my own life experiences, which consequently made the story difficult to relate to. Growing up in a middle class neighborhood I was never fully exposed to death that occurs in young adults due to gang violence, as a result I never knew what it was like to genuinely fear for my life or believe that I was going to die before I turned eighteen.

In Tattoos on the Heart, by Gregory Boyle, he describes the insecurity of gangs, violence, father wound, and crisis that the prisoners went through when they got out of jail. Boyle runs Homeboy Industries that's located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles, which was made to help gangs, and fresh out of prison parolees who want to improve their lives. They are not able to get jobs because their appearance gained financial and family insecurity. “Just assume the answer to every question is compassion” (Boyle 62). Having compassion was a way to have faith and not give up regardless of all the disgrace a person went through. Boyle addresses the problem of growing up around violence and not being able to attain

Living in a diverse community while maintaining a state of accord is onerous. It is innate to regard that one self’s unrivaled conduct and notion are factual, which leads society to become perplexed by that which they deem foreign. Thus, when one denounces another's truth - chaos ensues. Fr. Gregory Boyle offers that compassion and kinship are necessary to live in harmony yet, kinship cannot stand alone, and compassion must be present to create unanimity. Kinship implies that compassion is present, but that is not always correct yet, with compassion a perceived kinship is always present. To live in a community ridden with diversity can be problematic, but despite the moments in which the novel’s anecdotes were difficult to relate to Tattoos on the Heart informs its readers about what their responsibilities are when it comes to different ideas.

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress” -Frederick Douglas. In today's society, people tend to give up on themselves and others very easily if things aren’t moving in a positive direction. This idea is shown in the book “Tattoos on the Heart - The Power of Boundless Compassion”, written by Fr. Gregory Boyle. Fr. Gregory is a native of California and is a Jesuit priest currently working at Homeboy Industries in Central Los Angeles. Homeboy industries is a gang intervention program that focuses on helping gang members get out of the bad situations that they are in. He has spent the majority of his adult life dedicating his time to help gang members become productive members of society and to find their faith for nearly 30 years. In his

Have you ever wondered what is preventing you from achieving you goals and dreams? Can you rely on your neighborhood to fulfil your dreams? In regards with this subject is the book "tattoos on the heart" by Gregory Boyle. Boyle, from his experience, discloses several stories of gang members getting a second chance to start a new life using central theme of compassion, kinship and common call to delight one another. The article "Our Kids" by Robert D. Putnam, he explains how there increasing segregations and inequality in income, wealth and social mobility. The article "Pathway to economic mobility" by Stuart M. Butler et al. He explains that there are "family influences, social institutions and community influences" that helps people in achieving

After reading the first three chapters of Tattoos on the Heart, I was able to relate to Memo at the end of chapter three. Memo discovered the compassion that he has for others after simply hearing about people who live in places where they ought not to live. Though I live a much different life from Memo, I experienced this feeling when I went to Haiti for the first time. I went to Haiti with factual knowledge that Haiti was a country that lived in poverty, and that they could not seem to catch a break from traumatic events occurring in their country. However, I did not realize the extent of their living conditions until I was on the bus, riding to the compound that I would be staying in for the week.

“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not,” This quote by C.S. Lewis speaks to the idea of God wanting more for us. God is someone who is always there for you no matter what happens. Though we may kill, steal, cheat or otherwise sin, God’s love never fades. The idea of the love of God never fading is very much prevalent in the novels Tattoos on the Heart and Alive. The struggles of gang members on the streets of Los Angeles and survivors of a plane crash in south America are connected through the faith they have lost in God.

A story in Tattoos on the Heart that really stood out to me was the one about Bandit. He sold crack and spent time locked up. He came to Father Greg at Homeboy Industries saying he was “tired of being tired”, (Boyle, 197). Father Greg got him his first job working in a warehouse. Flash forward fifteen years and Bandit is married with three children and manages the warehouse. Bandit calls Father Greg and asks him to give a blessing to his oldest daughter, Carolina.. Fr. Greg asks why and he says it’s because she is going off to college and he is worried about her. The next day they go to Dolores Mission. Everyone come around her and bows their heads for prayer. During the prayer everyone was crying because she’s the only one they know who has gone to college.

Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle is a very touching novel that goes through many ethical virtues that we all gain and learn from as we go through life. He often compares many values such as compassion, success, and kinship to Jesus’ own life. Boyle uses examples found in his own life through Bentito, Anthony, and the car mechanic Dennis. This is all critical to the novel because it shows how Boyle influences various people’s lives through small things such as opening their mind to new opportunities. Fr. Boyle advocates for the message of compassion in the hopes that the reader will learn the meaning of compassion from his own life experiences.

The families in these photos have no shame! From wild hair to wild animals, these awkward family photos will have you rolling on the floor laughing. My all time favorite is the family with the tattoos; what in the world were they thinking?!

As a kid, you’re not supposed to experience true sadness, or that’s what I thought. Losing one of the few people that care for you is one of the toughest things to handle, especially when you’re little. You know they’re gone, but yet you still feel like they’ll always be a part of you.

In his article, Martin first sets the stage by eliminating possible arguments made against why tattoos on teenagers have gone too far, and then he outlines the uneven relationship society has on a young person’s mind and draws a comparison to the larger identity issue of why teenagers result to decorating themselves. Martin continues by discussing some of the reasons that adults do not agree with their children piercing or tattooing: oppositional and enraging affronts to authority. Possible solutions to the problem, martin suggests, include

I always wanted a tattoo and I tried making a deal with my parents to get one but my dad wouldn't let me, so I always decided to get a tattoo kit and just do it myself but I never wanted to waste all my money on it so I relinquished the tattoo kit for partying because I thought partying was always more important. I always thought why pay $200 for one tattoo gun when you could get so much other stuff instead and spend time with friends.