Tattooed for good

Sean Dawley of Hooligan's Ink, invited customer Marlin Mancada to "sit down and take his medicine like a big boy," early Sunday morning at Dawley's Fairview Drive tattoo parlor.

Mancada, a dispatcher for the Carson City Sheriff's Department, practically fell asleep as tattooist Dave Sanchez etched an eagle onto his chest.

The piece, with the name Caleb crowning it, is an homage to Mancada's newborn son.

After about 45 minutes, Mancada got up from the chair and examined his first tattoo.

"I think that looks good," he said nodding his head. "I like it."

Mancada was Hooligan's 56th client, 15 hours into in a 24-hour marathon. "Tattooed for Good" raised money for Austin's House, a non-profit group foster home in Indian Hills.

Twenty percent of the draw will go to the organization, the remainder will go toward expenses. The three artists and shop workers donated their time.

For $50 and a canned food donation to go to the Carson Valley Food Closet, Dawley's goal was for himself and artists Sanchez and Joe Silvers to each knock out 50 tattoos at a half-hour apiece.

But like all best-laid plans, some of those tattoos went a little bit longer, like Mancada's. Or there were periods of time when no clients came in.

Yet still, artists Dawley, Sanchez and Silvers kept plugging along for the cause.

Cousins Katie Proctor and Lisa Ramos decided Hooligan's event was a good time to memorialize loved ones.

Proctor had Dawley give her a butterfly upon which she will later put the name of her paternal grandmother who died when Proctor was a sophomore.

"I'm not sure what my grandmother would think of it. She probably wouldn't like it," said Proctor. "But my dad, I think he'll like it."

For Ramos, Silvers created a sparrow in memory of her aunt.

Father-and-daughter team Brian and Sarah Zittel got the same tat " a tough-looking green hornet from the top of a Mickey's Big Mouth beer bottle.

Brian Zittel said he was sure his other daughter would come back to get her own.

When a lull hit about 2:30 a.m., the couches and tattoo tables filled up with the staff.

Silvers caught a cat nap on one couch, apprentice Lou Wolgast another.

Working apprentice and self-proclaimed insomniac, Sean "Gummy" Coots wandered about keeping an eye on his dozing friends and wondering aloud how Sharpie tattoos might look on them.

Sanchez crashed on the chair in his station, as Dawley sprawled out in his own and pondered the crew's success.

"As far as the goal, I think just being able to help those kids period is being ahead of the goal," said Dawley. "It feels good to stick it out no matter what."

At a quarter after 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, the blood-shot eyes of the Hooligan's men were hard to mistake. The race was over, said Dawley.

They'd only done 60 tattoos, far below their expectations. But for all three, it was the most tattoos they'd done in a single day.

Charlie Ransom's kanji writing on the back of his neck made him customer number 13. The name Lisa across his left bicep gained him the notoriety of customer 60.

Mancada's wife, Sarah, brought husband and 3-month-old son in, while she had a butterfly immortalized on back of her neck.

When it was over, Silvers, whose worked with Dawley for four years " at both Hooligan's and Dawley's South Lake Tahoe shop, the Electric Pencil " smoked a cigarette out back and shielded his eyes from the sunlight. It was a hard 24 hours, he admitted.

"But it was cool," he said, "It was for a good cause."

"I'm happy that the people that came had a good time. To me its a success no matter what," said Dawley.

- Contact F.T. Norton at fnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.

Austin's House Is a non-profit group foster home in Indian Hills. The sanctuary is named after Austin Kirby, who died at age 15 from the effects of epilepsy.