A 60-Year-Old Mother Steadfastly Supports Her Son in Undergoing Free Tattoo Removal by Baznas

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Among the participants of the free tattoo removal program at the South Jakarta City Hall on Thursday (26/2/2026), Yanti (60) was seen steadfastly accompanying her 30-year-old son as he underwent the tattoo removal process for the first time.

She admitted that she only found out that the process could not be done in a single session.

“I only found out here that the removal cannot be done in one go. I thought I would come, it would be done, and that would be it. But it’s not,” said Yanti when met at the location.

Yanti admitted that she did not know when her son got the tattoos about 10 years ago. Now, she just wants her son to gradually get rid of the inked images on his body.

“Yes, I encourage him to remove his tattoos,” she said.

This desire was strengthened after she saw information about the free tattoo removal program from the National Amil Zakat Agency (Baznas).

Initially, she visited the Sunda Kelapa Mosque, Central Jakarta, which was the location of the program until Tuesday (24/2/2026).

However, the activity then moved to South Jakarta, so the mother and son had to go to a different location.

At the South Jakarta City Hall, Yanti immediately registered her son to participate in the first stage of tattoo removal.

She hopes that her son will consistently undergo the process, even though the time between procedures can be up to a year.

“Well, we’ll just go through it. Hopefully, my son really wants to remove the tattoos. Hopefully, he won’t get tired of it because the time between procedures is a year. I’m afraid he won’t want to anymore,” said Yanti.

He has three tattoos, and two of them are now in the second stage of removal.

“It seems like it will take about a year, maybe even ten years,” said Mega when met separately.

According to Mega, some of his friends who used to get tattoos together are now also looking for information about similar programs.

“Now, they might be getting tired of it, looking for it, ‘Hey, where can I get a tattoo removed? I want to join,’” he said. “They want to join the ‘hijrah’ (religious transformation) movement.”

He added that the cost of tattoo removal outside the free program can reach around IDR 1 million for every centimeter of ink on the skin.

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