Matt Goss, owner of Syndicate Tattoo, and his wife Ali Goss, owner of Enamored by Ali, a cosmetic tattooing business, share a shop, along with other artists, in downtown Manhattan, Kansas.
In recognition of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, January 11, Spark is recognizing a local entrepreneur and tattooist, Matt Goss, who is contributing his work and craft to being part of the healing journey for survivors. This is the first of the #EntrepreneursGiveBack series, highlighting Manhattan area entrepreneurs who are using their business for good.
Matt Goss, owner of Syndicate Tattoo, in his downtown Manhattan shop.
Matt Goss, owner of Syndicate Tattoo, has been a tattooist for the last 17 years of his life. But it was a career path he did not see coming. Early in his career, he served in the Army and worked as a receptionist at a tattoo shop on the weekends. After 10 years at the shop, Matt finished his second Associates degree in auto mechanics and began searching for what was next. Upon sharing his plans to leave the tattoo shop, the owners offered him an opportunity. “The shop asked me if I ever thought about tattooing, and of course I had.” Matt committed to learning the craft and worked with the shop as a tattooist for the next five years. “Eventually, I branched out, and we opened Syndicate downtown 12 years ago.”
Throughout the last few years, Matt and his wife, Ali, wanted to find ways that they could help their community in impactful ways. Ali homeschooled their four children for eight years, but when they all decided to go back to public school, it opened up new opportunities for Ali to pursue her interest in cosmetic tattooing. “In order to learn how to tattoo in Kansas, you have to train under someone who has been tattooing for a minimum of 5 years, so I got my cosmetic tattooing license so we could learn together, and I could train her how to do it. We worked as a team to learn,” says Matt.
As he had in the beginning, Matt, along with his wife, Ali, dove into learning cosmetic tattooing by attending a variety of conferences and courses in Kansas City, Las Vegas and Denver. As they were introduced to the variations of the work, the couple learned about paramedical tattooing, which included areola reconstruction and scar camouflage, often needed after cancer treatments or other medical procedures. The two saw paramedical tattooing as an opportunity to do really meaningful work. Today, Ali is now the primary cosmetic tattooist at Syndicate Tattoo, and Matt started finding more and more people interested in cover ups and paramedical tattoos.
Although the paramedical tattoos were newer for Matt, coverups were not. “I’ve been doing coverups for a long time,” Matt said. “It’s an opportunity to add value and to be able to give back to the community. When you’re doing the same thing every day, sometimes you lose sight of what you’re doing. A lot of times [doing the cover ups] helps to ground you, and you realize all the things you have done have put you in the position to be able to help other people,” says Matt.
Matt and Ali Goss
This mindset gave Matt a reputation as someone who gives back, which opened the door for conversation with business leaders in downtown Manhattan about more ways he could serve. “Gina Snyder from Downtown Manhattan Inc and Jeff Sutton from Manhattan Town Center approached me about possibly working with sex trafficking survivors.” Although Matt had been doing cover up work for years, including gang tattoo cover ups, he had not heard of this type of work. He connected with Homestead Ministries, affiliated with Westview Community Church, and was introduced to Deb Kluttz, the Homestead Director. Matt soon learned that Homestead Ministries is a residential transitional care program for women who are survivors of the sex trafficking industry.
After being in contact with Deb, Matt began the journey of building relationships with the women he would be serving. The women started coming into his shop in groups of two to three to start the laborious process of getting their brands or tattoos covered up.
“I thought I was ready” – the complex and emotional process of a trafficking survivor’s tattoo cover up
In addition to the detail and complexity of the cover up work itself, Matt recalls he was surprised by the emotional intensity of the process. “I thought I was ready for this, but it was difficult.” He elaborates, “These are brands that people have put on these women to claim them as property. They take their driver’s license, their social security cards, and birth certificates, and completely strip them of who they are. It’s really incredible the emotions that are set free when you break that chain,” says Matt.
The release of emotions came not only from his survivor client, but also for him. Matt describes his experience driving home after his first time working with a survivor. “When I went home, I didn’t listen to the radio or anything, I just cried all the way home. It was powerful to realize that I had made such a change in somebody’s life,” says Matt.
Meaningful relationships and trust are the foundation of Matt’s work with women who have been trafficked, and Matt’s commitment to being present and hearing the stories of survivors helps build both trust and compassion. “I cannot believe how strong all these women are for all the things that they have been through,” says Matt. He recalls a time when he was invited to attend the graduation ceremony of one of his survivor clients after she completed the Homestead program. “Just to feel like I was a part of that was amazing,” says Matt.
When working on tattoo cover-ups, Matt utilizes creativity and camouflage to hide or disguise the old pattern. He describes the detailed process he takes clients through in preparation for the work. “First, I require the new tattoo be two to three times the size of the original. Next, there needs to be some sort of line work to break up the imagery underneath, to help camouflage what’s there. Then using something brighter, or something that moves through the tattoo to bring your eye in and out. After this process, noticing the cover-up requires a good eye to find what part of the old design peeks through. “I love it when they’re completely gone, and you can’t see the tattoo underneath it at all, but sometimes that’s not possible. We are working to be able to make it so you can’t tell,” says Matt.
For clients who are trafficking survivors, Matt observes that many of the designs he covers are names, groups, or numbers. It seems poetic that the best designs for covering tattoos that represent the pain of the past are beautiful objects that represent life, or items found in nature, such as feathers, foliage or vines, and flowers. Matt adds, “These organic designs usually have lots of line work in them that can break up the original design and use shading to its advantage.”
Creating safe environments in another primary consideration for Matt when he begins coverup tattoos for survivors. Each time he meets a client for the first time, they meet on common ground, he says, usually in the church meeting room. Clients always come to appointments or meet with him with at least one other person, for everyone’s safety and security, Matt explains, and procedures are completed in the main shop area. “I like to do the procedures out in the front of the shop so we are not in a confined area.” Matt continues, “We can give them privacy, but I think it helps to know that there are other people that are going through other tattoos and procedures at the time, and kind of commiserating with you at that point.”
When the client arrives for their scheduled appointment, Matt and his team work to create an environment customized and responsive to the needs of the survivor. “We have put privacy screens up, or we have put privacy screens down so that they don’t feel trapped. We turn music on or off, anything we can do to alleviate their fears. We let them know that I have the rest of the day marked off for this, so as long as we need. I assure them, ‘You’re my priority today, you’re the only person I am taking care of and we have time to make you comfortable,’” says Matt.
The relationships he creates with survivors do not end once he finishes their tattoos. “This one woman I have spent over 15 hours with, and I see her in the community – and, you know, it’s side hugs and high fives, which is just great. I want them to know that we are on the same team, and they even think we are on the same team because we are. I am their cheerleader,” says Matt.
Matt working on a tattoo with a client.*
Although many of the tattoo coverups he completes are not visible to most people, the restorative work has a huge impact on the client. “It’s amazing to me, because even if there is something that people can’t see, it still carries a lot of weight. It’s great to see the weight that is lifted off their shoulders when they leave the shop.” He continues, “My friend once told me, ‘Everyone wants to feel important and feel loved,’ and I think that this is another aspect of providing that to people.”
Throughout the entire process, Matt and his clients unravel many pent up of emotions, so when they are finished it is an indescribable achievement for both. “I can’t describe how it feels when they look in the mirror and see that release. It’s just powerful. Every time I end up crying all the way home. I just find myself with the radio off and tears going, with a lot of reflection in that moment, like I did something good today.”
One of the trafficking survivors, Kendra, for whom Matt completed a cover up, shares the impact Matt’s work had on her. “It was definitely a blessing. I feel like the ‘brand’ of my ex was cleared up and gave me the opportunity to turn over a new leaf. It really went to the full extent of separating me from the old man,” Kendra writes in a message.
“I want to do more” – expanding impact through partnerships
Since starting cover ups for trafficking survivors one year ago, Matt has been able to help five women overcome their fears and reclaim their bodies. But it doesn’t end there. “What I really want to do is to be able to do more,” says Matt.
For Matt, doing more means looking for ways to expand his work by potentially starting a non-profit organization that will fund the cover up tattoos of victims of sex trafficking. “This is bigger than something I can do on my own so I have been talking to people who say they want to help. I think we have a good network of people in Manhattan, who so far have been extremely helpful.” Involving others in his field, as well as professionals in the medical field, are key steps Matt hopes to take to increase the number of survivors he can serve. “I would like to be able to recruit other tattoo artists and vet other shops to make sure the women remain safe.”
Matt is still in an investigative stage of deciding if or how to form a non-profit organization, but his ultimate goal is to enable himself and other tattoo artists to be able to do more work, whether through training or financially having core expenses covered. Matt acknowledges that he donates his time, but he is limited by what he as one person can do since a cover up can take up to 20 or 25 hours for one tattoo. Yet his goal when performing any paramedical tattoos or cover-ups is to not charge them for his services. “I never want to ask the people who are receiving these services for money,” says Matt. Hence, the need for various forms of financial support and more tattoo artists coming alongside the mission.
Matt has also been investigating the possibility of partnering with other, complementary medical professionals. “I am trying to build relationships with doctors, plastic surgeons and dermatologists to build more of a portfolio so I can move into the Kansas City area and work with those doctors.” He adds, “At this point, I don’t have any connections like that.”
So far, working with Homestead Ministries has provided Matt not only with clients, but also with connections and contacts to others to help grow this mission. Homestead houses up to 18 survivors at a time between their Manhattan and Salina homes, and that is only the beginning of connections with others who need this specialized form of tattooing.
Staying adaptable and on mission is Matt’s priority. “Even if I don’t get a non-profit off the ground, that is not a deal-breaker. There are people in the community and other organizations that I am finding that are willing to help.” Matt continues, “I have another artist who is willing to get on board with me and is willing to help me with this. He has worked in the shop when these services occur and has witnessed just how powerful it is and is eager to help.”
At the core of his work, Matt is driven by the opportunity to offer a truly fresh start to survivors of human trafficking. He often uses the hashtag #SecondChances in describing his work. “We have all been given plenty of second chances in our lives, and to be able to give that to somebody is life-changing for me. Allowing women to reclaim their bodies, whether it is through the areola reconstruction, scar coverups, or the sex trafficking coverups is really powerful.” He adds, “I am all in. I want to be able to help as much as I can.”
Follow Matt and Syndicate Tattoo on Instagram to view work of the artists at the shop. To contact Matt about getting involved as a tattoo artist, medical professional or contributor, send an email with any questions or inquiries that you have here.
To learn more about Homestead Ministries and local efforts to provide healing and rehabilitation for trafficking survivors, or to get involved or donate, visit their site here.
*For confidentiality purposes, no cover up tattoos or images of trafficking survivors were featured in this article. The images provided were cover ups done for other clients, with their permission, or professional photos provided by Matt Goss.
