Making a ‘lasting difference’: Las Vegas tattoo shops honored for helping foster children

Ending up in a California foster care system at the age of 12 was scary, confusing and traumatic for veteran tattoo artist Robert Gonzales.

He said he was more perplexed by the fact that while his father had died, his mother had decided to surrender her children.

“It sucks, man,” Gonzales told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “You’re hurt because you don’t understand why you’re in there. You’ve got a perfectly good parent still out there. Why would she give you away?”

Added Gonzales: “The state raised me.”

As co-owner of Koolsville Tattoo shops — founded decades ago by his wife, Mari Gonzales — he has made it his mission to provide a sense of belonging and gifts to local foster youth, and others.

Clark County honors

One of Koolsville’s traditional fundraisers, in which artists exchange free tattoos for supplies, earned recognition from the Clark County Commission in late October.

The shops had collected 180 pajama sets, 42 stuffed animals, 100 personal care items and 40 boxes of diapers and wipes, officials said.

“We often say, ‘It takes a village to take care of our children,’” Commissioner William McCurdy II said. “And Koolsville Tattoo is proving that every corner of our community can make a lasting difference.”

McCurdy noted that there area about 3,000 children in the county’s foster care system.

Koolsville participates in quarterly campaigns, at least, said marketing director Zach Saucier.

For its latest Halloween drive with Las Vegas, the shops collected so many costumes and candy that the city had to use a box van to pick them up, he noted.

One doesn’t need to get a tattoo to help, said Saucier, who said his mother recently dropped off children’s costumes for nothing in return.

Koolsville is in the middle of a Christmas drive. Similar to other fundraisers, customer can bring $30 worth of toys to receive a free “flash tattoo,” which normally runs for $50.

Some of the artists also are products of the foster care system, Saucier said.

“We’re not just giving away free tattoos,” he said. “Our artists are providing their time, and their supplies and their effort, because it means something to them.”

‘I carry that burden with me’

Robert Gonzales grew up in Littlerock, California. When he was a child, he befriended a boy whose father operated a tattoo shop at the back of their home.

That’s where the children hung out, doing homework and learning how to draw, a skill that prepared them for their eventual careers in tattooing, he said.

Gonzales explained how difficult it was for foster children who weren’t babies or toddlers to be adopted or taken in by a foster family.

“You feel like people forget about you, and I don’t want any of these kids to have to go through the same thing I did,” he said. “I’m 64 now, and I carry that burden with me, for like 50 years.”

He spent the six years before reaching adulthood in a juvenile hall, he said. Gonzales said he served three years in the Army and became a union worker before he made his way to Las Vegas, where he teamed up with Mari Gonzales.

Global recognition

Koolsville is one of the oldest tattoo business in the valley. It’s garnered tens of thousands of followers on social media with millions of monthly views, and is constantly a top search on Google, Saucier said.

Because of that, the fundraisers have received global attention and have even seen new customers travel from oversees to participate, he said.

As a rule, customers can only get one flash tattoo at one shop at a time, Saucier said. That hasn’t stopped some from going around the nine shops, donating new supplies for new ink.

Flash tattoos are described as pre-drawn art. Koolsville has a wide variety, “from girly tattoos to masculine skulls and daggers,” he said.

The shops’ owners and workers take pride when they attend the giveaway events. They said they like to lay low to take it all in.

“We just kind of sit in the back,” Gonzales said. Some parents find them to thank them, he added.

“It just makes me happy, it really does,” he said. “It makes me feel like… I didn’t have everything growing up, but I had what I needed.”

Anyone or any business can provide similar help, Gonzales said. “It just takes some of your time.”

For him, donating time to help less fortunate children is rewarding.

Asked about what his ultimate goal is when it comes to the fundraisers, Gonzales laughed.

“Just keep doing it ‘till I die, forever” he said. “I mean, there’s always going to be somebody who needs something.”