ROTTERDAM, July 29 -- Dutchwoman Joke winces as lasers crackle over her skin, removing one of the 250 tattoos her abusive partner scrawled all over her body and face, anywhere he believed another man had touched her.

The 53-year-old is one of hundreds helped by Rotterdam-based foundation Spijt van Tattoo ("Tattoo Regret"), which offers victims free laser treatment and is poised to expand internationally.

Joke (pronounced Yo-Ke) suffered years of abuse, locked in caravans and sheds, and forcibly tattooed at home with a tattoo gun until virtually no area of her body was ink-free.

He daubed his name on her face more than a dozen times, on her forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, even her eyelids.

Even when she escaped, the physical reminders of...