72 pages • 2 hours read
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
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Gregory (Greg) Boyle
Tattoos on the Heart is Gregory Boyle’s memoir. The book is a personal, introspective narrative containing countless contemporary “parables” that Boyle has encountered in his many years of helping those on the margins of society. Boyle has a Master’s degree in English; his writing style is refined, descriptive, humorous, and serious all at once. The narrative makes it clear that Boyle’s experiences as a Jesuit priest inform the entirety of the narrative and emotional landscape of Tattoos on the Heart. Boyle’s early missionary work in Bolivia helped solidify his Spanish language skills, something that would later help him in his goal to reach the hearts and minds of the homies and homegirls that lived and feuded around Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles. During his time at Dolores Mission Church, Boyle does what no one else seems willing to do: talk to, interact with, and help out gang members. Boyle’s efforts to counsel local gang members blossomed into the prosperous enterprise of Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization that helps gang members find employment, attain educations, and cut their former gang ties. Homeboy Industries has helped thousands of gang members change their lives for the better, though Boyle has also had to bury nearly 200 young men and women as a result of gang violence. Boyle will go to any length to help anyone he can, but as the book closes, Boyle warns that kinship, peace, and compassion can only thrive if those at the margins of society are accepted by all.
The Homies and Homegirls of Los Angeles
As Tattoos on the Heart is a non-fiction memoir and not a novel, many minor characters are mentioned in passing throughout the book, as the subjects of Boyle’s short anecdotes, but they are rarely ever mentioned again. The work can be likened to a quilt, as it is composed of a series of anecdotes that are woven carefully together. Every single one of Boyle’s anecdotes revolves around a different homie, homegirl, or group of gang members from around Los Angeles. Each of these stories are given the same focus, attention, and detail as the others, so none of the minor characters of the book ever rise to the level of a major character. But taken collectively, they are the foundation of the book, as the book revolves entirely around their lives, their struggles, and their successes. After Boyle comes into their lives, every single homie and homegirl sees their lives dramatically improve; once given attention, care, and a helping hand, these individuals find they are capable of amounting to something, and no one but themselves can make the decision to not move forward with their lives.
Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace is a real-life reporter with 60 Minutes who visited Boyle to film an episode on Boyle’s outreach efforts to local troubled youth and gang members. Wallace comes to represent everything that Boyle is not: He arrives for the filming session in a limousine and flak jacket, whereas Boyle walks or bikes his way through the barrios with no protection whatsoever. Wallace tells Boyle that he has come expecting monsters, but Boyle knows just the opposite: Gang members are ordinary people capable of suffering, love, and redemption. Later, during a filming session at Dolores Alternative Mission School, Wallace states to the students that Boyle likely would not turn them into the police, and he asks one boy why this was the case. The boy only shrugs and says “God…I guess” (20). Boyle’s faith compels him to perform ceaselessly towards bringing love and hope to anyone around him, and Wallace cannot wrap his head around how Boyle has come to live his life. In this sense, Boyle is Wallace’s literary foil, for he is compassionate whereas Wallace is cold.
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