Skin of Tattoos (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798235950139)

Sometimes your best homies are your worst enemies. L.A. homeboy Mags is desperate for a fresh start out of gang life, but after doing time on a frameup, he finds the only door open to him is continuing with his clica, the Cyco Lokos. He figures he'll stay in for a while to save money to get away from Los Angeles with his girl, but his archrival homie Rico sees him as a threat and schemes to get Mags out of the way forever. Mags plays right into Rico's hands, only realizing what his homie is up to after it's too late. Then Mags must make a difficult sacrifice to save his family and himself.
Drawn from the author's extensive interviews with street gang members in Los Angeles and San Salvador, this noir crime novel explores a poor immigrant family's struggle to survive in a gritty world where gangs appear to offer youth a way out but instead ensnare them in a dead-end life.