Brian Widener First News Today

Okay. you wouldnt want a lot of that, though. >> that really hurt. >> im going to give you a numbing medicine. this part will sting for a few seconds, but then it will get numb. >> unfortunately for something like this, with these randomly-placed tattoos its hard to do a single shot and get it done. youve got so much. its not the little needle sticks that hurt so much. this local anesthetic has a ph thats a little bit aacidic so it stings when it goes in. its not a pleasant process. >> take deep...

Part of my life that i left behind. brian widener grew up in albuquerque, new mexico. >> when i was about three years old i moved in with my grandparents along with my little sister. my grandmother was a severe alcoholic. i was told that i was pretty well worthless, i wouldnt ever amount to anything. this or that. by the age of 13, 14rks i just started running away all the time. i became a chronic runaway at that point. just started living on the streets. >> at the age of 18, brian joined his ...

Center offered to cover the cost of brians tattoo removal procedures. >> if i could prevent one other kid from making the same mistakes i did, if i can prevent one other family from having to go through the same -- the same crap that i put my family through, maybe i can redeem myself and maybe it will be worth it. >> the difficulty with brian is the number of them. i mean, its just -- hes got so many. so the biggest challenge with him will be just the very large area of the surface of skin that ...

>> hey! good morning! now what about your hands? >> what about them? >> do you want him to get this? >> yeah. absolutely. >> well do that today. >> okay. >> this is the first tattoo i got. i got no use for it anymore. >> look at the response we get with this. >> if im going this far to get all those taken off, getting the hands would be the next logical step. that way i could actually wear a long sleeve and blend in to the best of my ability. >> are you cold? >> it hurts. >> it hurts? >> it hurt...

That the black and minorities were like a cockroach. they were like second-class citizens. >> at age 29, julie joined the national alliance. >> the national alliance is a neonazi movement. and this particular organization is not the kind that goes around wearing swastikas and brown shirts. they were looking for a more subtle member. because they felt like if their members were in the system they could make more changes. >> after 16 years in the movement, brian, along with his wife julie, became ...

Retirement program is either the prison or the grave. i didnt feel like going to prison. so that would have been the other alternative. >> brian? brian? youre all done, buddy. open your mouth up wide. youre all done, buddy. >> try to stay on your back. >> brian, you hear me? >> yes. >> just relax. >> stay right on your back. >> were just going to take you to the wake up room. >> i think hes more concerned about my stress level than anything else. he just wants me to see him so i know hes okay. b...

That ied that more in common with him than some of the guys id bud did up with for close to 20 years. but that really changed me in a lot of ways. >> bryans breakaway from the skin heads was accelerated when julie became pregnant. it would be bryans first biological child. >> when we found out we were pregnant with him, i realized it wasnt about just me anymore. i had this baby coming, and the partying had to stop. being a derelict had to stop. but he really opened my eyes to what it means to be...

>> im going to the pharmacy to get his prescription, his pain medicine. the second treatment has been a little bit harder for me to watch him go through because i know how much pain he was in the first treatment. and it hurts to see people you love in pain. >> theres some swelling in the hospital. by the time we got home it was pretty poofed out. by about 10:00 last night my eye was already almost this bad. they just progressively keeps getting worse. i still have flashbacks. past things that iv...

Weve were finished. >> following several treatments, the medical team alters their approach. >> so now what were doing, weve done the last couple of times its worked very well. we put him to sleep. once hes asleep then we give him the local anesthesia. then we do the treatment. so when he wakes up his face is still numb. the numbing medicine wears off slowly over a few hours so the pain kind of builds slowly. he can tolerate it much better. >> this also allows dr. shack to treat brians entire fa...

Death, obviously. i thought i was going to die. but it really dawned on me the next morning that i came that close to having my brains all over the side of a building. and i still -- i still see his face and feel that gun on my forehead most nights, actually. >> its brians third treatment, but its the first on his neck. >> im going to start slipping you some cocktails while we get monitors put on. >> because of brians neck sensitivity, the decision is made to use general anesthesia. since hell b...