MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee teen is turning pain into purpose after surviving the unthinkable.
Recently paralyzed with a traumatic brain injury, a high school junior who goes by ’T’ has spent more time at the hospital over the past two years than in the classroom.
But a procedure she received this week wasn’t for one of her injuries, rather to remove a tattoo that’s a constant reminder of her past.
A past so dangerous she asked TMJ4 not to show her face on camera or share her full name.
"I will finally feel free,” she said. "I will finally feel like I could just be myself again."
’T’ says the man who forced her to sell her body on the streets and back alleys of Milwaukee also made her get his name branded on her neck.
"It really affected me mentally and still to this day it makes me feel like I'm worthless and I'm not worth nothing and I'm just trash,” she said.
Juan Bucio owns Laserfied Tattoo Removal. He’s offered the same laser treatment for free to dozens of human trafficking survivors like ’T’.
"I feel great that I'm helping them erase and get rid of markings that were left on them by their traffickers,” Bucio said.
But none of them have a story quite like ’T’, who says she ran away when she was 15 after a classmate introduced her to her older brother.
"He made me believe that like he was going to be my boyfriend,” she said. “He made me believe that he loved me."
’T’ says her romantic relationship soon turned into abuse and exploitation.
“Without giving me any option, he tell me that I'm going to start working for him,” she said.
A year later, she built up the courage one day in November of 2020 to say she was done. That same night, ’T’ says she was sitting in a car when she was shot in the back of the head by an unknown individual.
“Did doctors think you would survive?” TMJ4’s Ben Jordan asked. “No one thought I would survive,” she replied.
The shooting left ’T’ with lifelong cognitive and speech issues. Milwaukee police responded to the scene and launched an investigation, but to this day no one has been arrested for the shooting.
"Unfortunately, my daughter came home with a gunshot wound to her head, but she came home,” said ’T’'s mother Melissa.
Melissa says she did everything she could to bring her daughter home before things escalated, but she says ’T’ kept leaving.
"I tried to get her mental health, but of course, a 15-year-old has to give their permission,” she said.
As January marks Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Melissa and ’T ‘ are sharing their experience to shed light on the intersection of sex trafficking and domestic abuse. They say one of the biggest misconceptions is that victims are kidnapped or recruited by a stranger.
A 2020 study by the U.S. Human Trafficking Hotline shows 81 percent of victims are swept in by a family member or an intimate partner, oftentimes making it even harder for them to get out.
"When someone you love and trust and care about or think is your friend is now putting you in these positions, I think it clouds their judgement as to what is right and what is wrong,” Melissa said.
"This needs to be stopped because I know for a fact that I'm not the only one,” ’T’ said.
While her life is forever altered at just 18 years old, ’T’ wants to warn others before they’re forced down a similar path.
"They need to reach out to someone that they trust and ask for help,” she said. “They need to stand up for themselves because if they don’t then they’re just going to be in a life full of hell.”
A message of self-worth as the horrors of the past few years slowly fade and the healing begins.
Several non-profit organizations help human trafficking victims and survivors in a variety of ways:
Convergence Resource Center: Helps survivors of human trafficking with trauma-informed care as they rebuild their lives
Franciscan Peacemakers: Connects women survivors of sexual exploitation to safe housing, meaningful work and a network of support
Grateful Girls: Provides human trafficking survivors with short-term residential housing, clothing, job training and placement.
Inner Beauty Center: Provides human trafficking survivors with nutritious home-cooked meals, haircuts and donated clothing.
UMOS: Offers civil legal assistance to trafficking victims and survivors
The Asha Project: the first and only culturally specific African American domestic abuse provider in Wisconsin.
For more organizations that partner with the Milwaukee Joint Human Trafficking Task Force, click here.
