MAS Magazine / 7 - 21 - 2006

MAS

Top Story

“Tattooing with Dave was a friendly competition.”

– Marc De Leon, friend

JULY 21, 2006

15

“He gave me a wonderful family, the tattoo family.”

– Nicole Fuentes, wife “Someone would come in and want a tattoo Dave didn’t like, and he’d say, “No, no, homes, you gotta get this one. By the end of the conversation, he would change their mind.”

– David Colby, friend

“Dave was always cracking jokes.”

– David Colby “Dave showed me unconditional love” – Nicole Fuentes “He had a fierce conscience.”

– Nicole Fuentes

“Dave was a strong guy. He didn’t let his cancer get him down.”

– Nicole Fuentes

“Dave stayed the same and didn’t follow trends” – Billy Von, friend SELF-PORTRAIT BY DAVID FUENTES

Top Story MAS

JULY 21, 2006

16

>>> Continued from page 14

beating his chest like Tarzan and making loud noises, then I locked him out of the room, leaving him stuck freezing on the balcony for hours! Man, he was mad!”

Fuentes would continue to live life following his dream of being a successful tattoo artist, staying true to his original path. For years, co-workers came and went, but the team of Fuentes and De Leon would stay strong for a lifetime.

“It’s cool that Dave and I worked together all these years so well,” De Leon said. “Most other shops that have been around for a long time change artists all the time.”

Finding Nicole Two days after her husband’s funeral, Nicole Fuentes sits at her kitchen table with memories scattered around her.

There are framed photos of Fuentes with his friends and family, a plant given to her as a gift and Fuentes’ artwork on several walls of their home. Every once and awhile, Joshua, her 9-year-old son, or Sinica, her 7-year-old daughter, will come to her to ask for her permission.

“Can I make a bag of popcorn?”

“Can I watch a movie?”

She gives her OK and begins to tell the story of the first time she met Fuentes.

It was at the clubs. Having just turned 21, a mother of two kids, Nicole was living the rites of passage.

Fuentes, then 32, asked her to dance, and she agreed as long as his friend danced with her friend.

A few years went by after that,and Fuentes asked Nicole out on dates often, each time Nicole declining. She eventually gave him her pager number in a by-chance meeting near Mad Dog Tattoo. She remembers seeing him with a cast on his arm. She says she doesn’t even think she called him back.

But by the end of 2002, when she was 23, Nicole gave into Fuentes’ persistence when she and a friend went to Mad Dog Tattoo for tattoos.

Over the next two weeks, Nicole and Fuentes spent every day together.

Three months later, Fuentes wrote Nicole a letter that she kept and now reads at her kitchen table.

It is worn at the folds, some parts Scotchtaped, some words smeared. She reads the letter, full of humor, street lingo and Fuentes’ declaration of love and respect.

“I want to be a family man,” he writes.The couple decided to move in together.

Nicole admits the first month was hard, and they had a big argument. They went to bed that night, and Nicole says Fuentes turned to her and said he loved her.That was enough to settle their disagreement.

“We never went to bed mad,” Nicole says.

“We had a great life together.We had a great wedding.”

On May 16, 2004, David Fuentes and Nicole Villa were married at Teen Challenge

by David’s uncle, Ruben Heredia. Present at the ceremony were David’s two children from a previous relationship,Teresa and David Fuentes Jr., and Nicole’s two children, Joshua and Sinica. Together, David now had built another family to love.

“He took my kids in,” Nicole says.“We had a great marriage.There were no ties but love.”

Finding faith Aside from his tattoo work, Fuentes was also loyal to his faith. He became a born-again Christian about 2001, after self-examination of his life began to stir up emotions in his mind.

Attending church regularly at Liberty Christian Center in Bakersfield, Fuentes and Nicole would sit in the back of the church because of his discomfort with some of the

PHOTOS BY LYDIA GONZALES

Pallbearers, including Marc De Leon, Raymond Acebedo,David’s brother Ernest Fuentes and Ernest Jr.,line up to leave their corsages on David Fuentes’ casket during burial services at North Kern Cemetary in Delano Sunday.

Friends from the Mad Dog Tattoo family, body piercer Jason Johnson, former Mad Dog body piercer,Aaron Bowholtz and tattooist George Quick console each other at the end of David Fuentes’ funeral. visible artwork on his head.

“He had a devil tattoo on the back of his head,and he didn’t want people to see it,” said Nicole.

That attitude changed immediately when church members assured Fuentes they would not judge him because of his tattoos.

Life was going well until Jan. 12, 2005 – the day Fuentes was diagnosed with lung cancer.

The battle Fuentes, whose family had a history of cancer, went to the hospital with symptoms of intense back pain and severe headaches, suspecting he had the disease.

He was right.

Fuentes began his first round of chemotherapy.

“You couldn’t tell he was sick,” said Nicole.

Fuentes was still tattooing at Mad Dog, riding his bike and working out.

Despite Fuentes’ illness from the last of his chemotherapy, they even went to San Francisco so Nicole could get tattooed for their one-year wedding anniversary. They spent most of their time in the hotel because Fuentes was sick,but he made sure Nicole still got the tattoos she wanted of roses and a butterfly.

A few months later, the back aches and headaches returned.

By Dec. 19, 2005, Fuentes was back on chemo. Several trips to the hospital and second opinions from doctors at UCLA Medical Center did not forecast good odds that Fuentes would beat lung cancer.

It would spread to his brain.

One week later,a scan confirmed the presence of a brain tumor. Doctors began a process of nearly 30 radiation treatments in an attempt to burn most of Fuentes’ tumor.

They hoped to surgically remove what was left.

But he suffered a bad reaction to the radiation that left him with third-degree burns on his head.

To complicate the situation, Fuentes developed a MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) staph infection that Nicole also contracted through a scratch on her leg, spreading up her thigh.

Nicole laughs as she remembers being treated next to Fuentes. Both she and Fuentes would have to return for treatment every two days.

Radiation treatments came to an end.

Fuentes’ headaches diminished.

But then a blood clot formed in his leg.The prognosis looked good as his doctors surgically removed his tumor. However, future tests would show otherwise, and the tumor

was actually living and growing.

Nicole says Fuentes woke up in ICU to her crying. She was mourning after learning that the patient next to Fuentes had died in Nicole’s presence.

After being moved to another hospital, Fuentes contracted spinal meningitis following a surgery.

The first tubes of spinal fluid look good,but the second batch — taken due to symptoms of head swelling, headaches and a leaking head wound — was cloudy.

The date:Wednesday, July 5.

Doctors ran tests to determine whether Fuentes’ infection was in his brain or in his blood.

He would be in and out of sleep for a the next few days. Meanwhile, Nicole, their children, and tattoo and blood relatives alike would spend their time together in the hospital.

Some came to give their best wishes of recovery.Others stayed to celebrate Fuentes’ 38th birthday on July 8, and Nicole’s 27th birthday on July 9.

Everyone wore masks and gloves to avoid spreading infection.

Sunday night on her birthday, Nicole went home around 10 p.m. to take a shower after having been at the hospital with Fuentes since Saturday morning.

“I felt bad for being home, (but) I wanted to be good for him,” she says.

Four hours later, Nicole was called back to the hospital.

When she arrived, a crash cart was being rolled out of Fuentes’ room.

At 2:39am, Fuentes was gone.

“Dave was a strong guy — he didn’t let his cancer get him down,” Nicole said.“I have to believe there is a reason (David died) because if I don’t, I can’t live in peace.

“He brought a lot of wonderful things to me ... he gave me a wonderful family, the tattoo family.”

Editor’s Note: Nicole Fuentes wants to thank everyone for all of their love and support. David was rich with friends and family. “Thank you for all your help.”