Tattoos a unique form of therapy for Oct. 1 shooting survivors

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Courtesy of Dean McAuley

Dean McAuley, firefighter from Washington State, is one of many One October shooting survivors who will receive a tattoo September 30 at Seven Tattoo Studio on Polaris Ave. for Healing Ink, an event in which 21 survivors and first responders will each receive a free tattoo as a form of therapy from one of 21 famous tattoo artists.

Tue, Sep 29, 2020 (2 a.m.)

The terrifying moment a gunman opened fire on a crowd of Las Vegas concertgoers is painfully etched into survivor Dean McAuley’s memory.

Now he and others who escaped the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip are having healing images etched on their skin, something McAuley calls a “reminder of survival” and a “badge of honor.”

On Wednesday, 21 shooting survivors and first responders will receive free tattoos as a form of therapy at the Seven Tattoo Studio on Polaris Avenue.

The event, Healing Ink, is being organized by Artists 4 Israel, a nonprofit group that has provided “therapy tattoos” for survivors of terrorist attacks and mass shootings.

“Artists 4 Israel perfected this unique trauma therapy. They can incorporate existing scars into works of art or create meaningful images that draw the eye away from wounds. This allows victims to reclaim their bodies and the stories they tell,” the organization said in a statement.

McAuley, a Washington state firefighter, was among more than 20,000 people at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when the gunman opened fire from a hotel tower across the street.

McAuley was about 25 feet from the stage where Jason Aldean was performing when the shooting started. He tried to pull people to cover and watched as victims dropped to the ground as they tried to scramble over a fence.

When the shooting finally stopped 10 minutes later, 58 people were dead and more than 800 injured. In the subsequent months and years, two more people died as a result of their injuries.

McAuley, who used his medical training to try to save lives that night, said he’s never fully recovered from the trauma. He still has flashbacks.

At the scene of an accident where a girl was ejected from a car, he looked at her “and it took me right back to Vegas,” he said.

“I worked on two girls who died in my arms,” he said. “You start questioning if you did everything right.”

McAuley plans to get a tattoo of a guitar accompanied by the lyrics from a Jason Aldean song: “When I got what I got, I don’t miss what I had.”

“The tattoo is a reminder of survival. It becomes a badge of honor when you get on the other side of it,” McAuley said, though he acknowledged, “I’ll probably never be completely on the other side.”

Dylan Rosage, an artist based in North Carolina, will be tattooing a survivor who was shielded by a man who was shot at the concert.

Rosage said the way she described struggling with anger reminded him of a person losing a loved one.

“The world keeps going and you’re just walking around like, ‘Do you guys know what’s happened to me?’” he said.

Another survivor getting a tattoo is Natalia Baca, a 17-year-old concertgoer McAuley helped treat at the scene and get to a hospital after she was shot in the back.

Recounting the events in writing, Baca said McAuley put her into a random car and drove with her to the hospital. "He was watching my pulse, telling the driver to drive faster," she said.

After they arrived at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Baca asked McAuley not to leave. "He says, 'I will see you again. I promise,'" she recalled.

And he kept his word.

Baca said she has little memory of what happened next, but when she came to in a hospital room, McAuley walked in and greeted her with a huge smile and a hug. "It was a very magical feeling," she said.

After Baca recovered, McAuley became a virtual part of her family.

"He got to watch me graduate high school and (we) always meet up and talk on the phone," she said. " I love Dean so much. He is in my heart and my hero forever."

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