26 prisoners in Indonesia joined the tattoo removal program, as they want to make amends and distance themselves from their past.

Footage filmed at Class III Prison Suliki, Limapuluh Kota District, West Sumatra Province on December 26, shows a dermatologist from a beauty clinic removing a prisoner's tattoo using a laser.

The head of Suliki Prison, Kames Woro, said that removing tattoos from prisoners is part of the training and to turn this prison into a Islamic boarding school, with the hope that prisoners who have finished serving their sentences will be accepted by their families and society.

"This is also to get rid of the notion that people who go to prison cannot change for the better and will repeat unlawful acts," Woro said.

According to Woro, all prisoners participating in the tattoo removal program will become Islamic boarding school students during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

Dengki Helid, a convict, said he was happy to be able to remove his ugly Doraemon tattoo. "I will be released from prison in six months, I hope everyone understands that I have come to my senses." Helid added.

Meanwhile, there is still a persistent perception in Indonesia that tattoos will only be attached to the bodies of criminals and other lines of identity without morality.

Since tattoos became a marker of criminal identity in Indonesia in the era of mysterious shootings in the 1980s, tattoos have been attached to the image of thugs and criminals. A body that is clean from ink is also the standard for determining a clean soul.