Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Boyle said Mass at the Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles one day, and an older teen named Omar waved him over. Boyle went and spoke with him, and Omar said he would be getting out of juvie soon. Boyle cannot chat for long and said that he had to go give an anniversary Mass for a homie killed a year prior. Omar asked Boyle how many gangsters he had buried, and Boyle calculated about 75 (though the number has since doubled). Omar asked, “I mean, damn…when’s it gonna end” (110). Boyle told Omar it would end as soon as he decided it should.

Boyle then recounts when he first met Grumpy at Camp Munz. Boyle gave Grumpy his card and told him to call him when he got out of juvenile hall if he wanted his tattoos removed. Grumpy says he didn’t get the tattoos to get them removed. Boyle later helped a group of youths attend a Lakers game, and there, Grumpy told Boyle he would call him on Wednesday to get his tattoos removed. Boyle asserts that we must “trust in the slow work of God” (113).

A homie named Psycho died a month prior, and so Boyle traveled with a group of 15 gangsters to pay their respects to his grave. While there, a man named Carlos began to cry. Boyle pulled him to the side and comforted him. Carlos said that Psycho knew he was soon going to die, and he implored Carlos to “take care” of whomever his killer was. Boyle tried to steer him from this path by saying that Carlos had already “taken care” of everything, as he organized a car wash to pay for Psycho’s funeral.

One day, Boyle received a call that a shooting occurred near the Dolores Alternative Mission School. One of the school’s windows had been shattered, and a woman’s face had been cut by glass. Boyle was driving toward the area when he saw Johnny and Bear running without their shirts on. Boyle knew they must be involved, so he chased after them in his car. Later that day he came upon them, and told them to never run from him again. Boyle told Johnny that no one was seriously hurt, but that it was Johnny’s own mother who was wounded by glass in the Dolores Alternative Mission School.

Boyle closes the chapter by discussing Pedro, a man he helped send to rehab. A month into Pedro’s stay, Pedro’s brother committed suicide. Boyle picked Pedro up to attend the funeral and Pedro told Boyle a dream he just had. In the dream, Pedro and Boyle were sitting in a dark room together. Boyle picked up a flashlight and shined it on the room’s light switch. Pedro took this to mean that Boyle could show him the way, but it was up to Pedro to make the choice for himself to stay committed to positive change. 

Boyle used to take a short five-minute walk to Homeboy Industries’ office every day, and he would always see Junior hanging out a second-story building window while sipping a beer. Boyle always urged Junior to quit drinking, but Junior had never relented. One day when Boyle was walking to work, Junior shouted “LOVE YOU G-DOG” (129). Boyle told him thank you, and Junior responded, “Oh, come on now, G, you know…You’re in my jurisdiction’ (129). Boyle implores us all to see that we are all in each other’s “jurisdictions.”

Boyle remembers that in the late 1980s, many of the local gangs did not use drugs. They stuck to selling them for the most part, but there was one gang that was the exception, and they would use PCP daily. Flaco and two other members of this gang were high and walking back to their neighborhood when a car hit Flaco; his arm was immediately ripped off and his leg was crushed. When Boyle returned to his church later that day, a group of Flaco’s rivals had amassed and Boyle overheard a homie named Gato say that he was glad Flaco was hurt.

Boyle, enraged, stormed right over to the group and said he had love for them and he had love for Flaco, but that they should never talk like that again. Surprisingly, they all apologized. The next day, Gato showed up and asked Boyle for a ride. Boyle told Gato that he was going to the hospital to visit Flaco and that he could drop him off on the way.

In another anecdote, Boyle wanted to keep Richie and Chepe out of trouble, so he brought the two with him on a series of talks. One day, he took the two to a diner and was immediately struck by the rudeness of the hostess, who clearly did not want to serve the homies. They sat down at a table in the back, and Boyle realized it was the first time either of the men had ever been to a sit-down restaurant: neither knew what to do or how to order. The trio’s waitress was extremely kind and treated Richie and Chepe like honored guests, and Boyle referred to her as “Jesus in an apron” (135).

Boyle reminisces about a time he held Mass for youths in a Los Angeles Youth Authority center, helped by Larry, Juan, and Jerome. Boyle learned that Juan would sing a solo piece after communion, and Boyle was excited as he has never experienced that before. When Juan began to sing, it was utterly terrible. A second Mass was held, and Juan seemed to sing even worse. Afterwards, Jerome told Juan that “it takes…courage to get up and sing…when yo ass can’t sing” (138). Boyle expected to break up a fight, but instead they all began to laugh together.

Before Homeboy Industries grew, Boyle would walk each homie to their new job site. Boyle was walking Clever through the Homeboy Silkscreen facilities one day when Clever encountered Travieso. The two were sworn enemies, but they said they would work together. Six months pass and no incidents occur between them. Tragically, Travieso was beaten to death in an alley by a group of rival gang members and he died in the hospital shortly thereafter. Clever called Boyle and asked, “Is there anything I can do? Can I give him my blood?…He was my friend. We…worked together” (146). Here, Boyle says, Clever had entered into God’s jurisdiction.