Running head: TATTOOS ON THE HEART

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June 2015
HD 364
Community as a Context for Development
Leslie Thompson
Carla Franklin
Pacific Oaks

Reading Response
Tattoos on the Heart
By: Gregory Boyle

Author Note
This reading response is being submitted on Thursday 06/03/2015 via email at
lesliethompson@pacificoaks.edu and cfranklin@pacificoaks.edu

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Tattoos on the Heart

The key elements to building a successful community according to the author of Tattoos
on the Heart, Gregory Boyle, are KINSHIP, unconditional love and compassion. Throughout
the book, Father G(regory), gives an insight of how these key elements help the community he
closely works with. Father G has been successful building a community of rival gang members
working together and in unison through kinship. Obviously not an easy job, especially when
dealing with hard-time males who only know violence, Father G exhibits another key element,
unconditional love. When most people are skeptical of the work Father G exercises daily, he
once again tells a true story that makes you believe there is hope in the human kind which instils
compassion in others.
One key element Father G says is essential when working with the gang member
community he serves is kinship. Father G writes in his book We seek to create loving
communities of kinship precisely to counteract mounting lovelessness, racism, and the cultural
disparagement that keeps us apart (Boyle, G. 2010. p. 139). The gang members of Father Gs
community grew up with little to no love at home and not being accepted by their community
due to their criminal behavior pushed them further away as rejects and failures. Father G goes on
to say You stand with the least likely to succeed until success is succeeded by something more
valuable: kinship (Boyle, G. 2010. p. 179). Father G makes it very clear to all gang members
who seek his help, especially with employment, that rival ex-gang members are also helped by
Homeboy Industries and that they either work together or go elsewhere for help. Father G
doesnt say that they all need to get along and form friendships with one another yet it is
inevitable not to do so once rival gang members work so closely together for long periods of
times.

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A phrase that caught my attention is but how is it not the job description of human
beings seeking kinship. Its about appearing, remembering that we belong to one another, and
letting souls feel their worth (Boyle, G. 2010. p. 196). This can be applied to anyone, not just
the Homies in Father Gs community. Many stories that Father G shared in his book where
those of human beings that felt they werent worthy of anything in life; therefore setting them
back without even putting an effort to moving forward. Father G understood these unwanted
members of society and gave them a chance to believe in themselves as persons. Father G had
many downhill battles with gang members that wouldnt push their weight when trying to change
their ways yet he insisted and didnt give up on any of them. Totally opposite of what we do as a
functioning society, leave behind those that arent worthy or less able to. After all, they are a
burden and why should we waste our efforts on those that arent willing? This mentality is what
has our society in trouble.
In Better Together by Putnam, the author narrated how a group of people became a
community through relationships, common concerns and interests. A group of angry and or
passionate people in a community wasnt so successful in getting what was needed until they
formed an organization with strategies, planned and organized as a group. Father Gs concept of
a successful community is similar to that of Putnams when he wrote Alone they didnt have
much, but together, they had a potful of plenty (Boyle, G. 2010. p. 142). Father G established a
successful community of ex-gang members and convicts through working together as an
organization. Even though such members of this community where once rivals they were able to
put that aside and work productively together. All members of Homeboy Industries have
common concerns and interest having the same background experiences that guided them to such
industry. Father G said it best when he wrote towards the end of his book under about the

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author section, In Homeboy Industries various businesses- baking, silk-screening,

landscaping- gang affiliations are left outside as young people work together, side by side,
learning the mutual respect that comes from building something together.

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Reference

Boyle, G. (2010). Tattoos on the heart: The power of boundless compassion. New York, NY:
Free Press.
Putnam, R., & Feldstein, L. (2003). Better together: Restoring the American community. New
York: Simon & Schuster.