MSNBC To Air Doc Feature About Former Skinhead's Laser Tattoo Removal

At a time when America is strongly focused on reducing prejudice, hate and bullying, MSNBC will shine a spotlight June 26 on a story of redemption.

The network’s latest documentary “Erasing The Hate,” hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell, will tell the story of how Bryon Widner ended 16 years in a skinhead group where he was a heavy drinker and “pitbull” enforcer.

Tattooed head-to-toe, Widner spent that time bullying and assaulting minorities. Then he became a husband and father in 2006 with his wife Julie, a fellow former skinhead who had also become disenchanted with the group’s hateful rhetoric. Both knew they didn’t want to bring a child into that culture. Escaping meant fleeing from Michigan to Tennessee.

"That’s the skinhead philosophy; the retirement program is either prison or the grave," Bryon explained.

Though Bryon’s extensive tattoos meant challenges settling into a new life and escaping reminders of his past deeds, the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2009 granted him the financial aid to start the gradual 20-month process of laser-removing his ink at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Erasing The Hate” follows him throughout that physically painful process of eradicating his most permanent reminders of who he’s been, so he can better see where he’s going.

Check out the included clip below, in which Bryon discusses how growing up with alcoholic grandparents in Albuquerque, New Mexico made a teen runaway of him and led him into the streets and the open arms of the skinhead movement.