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Fresno, Calif.  (KMPH News) – It’s a
case that’s gone to the top of the Fresno Police Department Child Abuse
Unit.  Investigators are looking for a man they describe as a Bulldog
gang member and who they say forcibly tattooed a gang symbol on his
7-year old son’s stomach.

Fresno Police Department spokesman
Jeff Cardinale says the second grader was spending Spring Break with
his father, 26-year-old Enrique Gonzalez, when he took the boy to a
friend’s house to get his son tattooed.

“The boy did not want
to have the tattoo put on, but the father forcibly restrained the boy,
pinning him to the ground while his friend who is a 20-year-old
validated bulldog gang member put a Bulldog paw print on the young
boy,” said Cardinale.

Travis Gorman was taken into police
custody on Tuesday at a home in Central Fresno.  Tattoo paraphernalia
was also found and confiscated.

“The tattoo artist was positively identified by the young child as being the one who put the tattoo on him,” said Cardinale.

The
child was placed in his mother’s custody after she filed a police
report on Monday, April 20th against Gonzalez for having their son
tattooed.  Police say Gonzalez also goes by the name Henry Gonzalez.

James
Conway, a Tattoo Artist at 30/30 Tattoo in Fresno says not only is it
illegal to tattoo a minor, there are also other dangers that come with
what he calls ‘backyard tattooing.’

“Most of them will use the
same needles and there’s cross contamination.  You can spread the
Hepatitis virus, AIDS, HIV all that kind of stuff so it’s very
dangerous to go get tattoos in basically somebody’s backyard,” said
Conway.

The Fresno Police Department is offering to remove the
Bulldog dog paw at no cost using a tattoo removal machine issued by the
Mayor’s Gang Prevention Initiative.

“But, keep in mind, anybody
who’s had a tattoo removed will tell you, it’s very painful to have a
tattoo put on and then to have a tattoo removed is even more painful. 
So, this young man has had to endure a lot of mental scaring and quite
honestly some physical scaring as well because of this despicable act
by his father and his father’s friend,” said Cardinale.


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