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With his arm, wrist and much of his side covered in third and fourth degree burns, Casey Keener had plenty of things going through his mind as he laid in the burn unit last year. It wasn\u2019t how many of layers of skin had been destroyed by the flames of the fire pit he was thrown into, the prospect of skin grafts or the length of the recovery that awaited him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are my tattoos?\u201d he asked the doctors in the emergency room.<\/p>\n
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Having served as an ER technician at Long Beach Memorial, he knew the severity of his situation, and that when the doctors told him he had bigger things to worry about, that was putting it mildly.<\/p>\n
There was the discomfort of a hospital bed and sleepless nights from nightmares from which Keener would wake up in cold sweats. Then came the depression, and adjusting to life without the aid of the painkillers that made the fact that 15% of his body had been burned in the accident bearable. Immobilized, Keener was left alone with his thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re in pain and you can\u2019t really do a lot so you basically have a lot of time to think,\u201d Keener said. \u201cA lot of time to think and a lot of time to be in a lot of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the accident, Keener, who works at Tattoo Artist Magazine<\/a>, had already presented the idea for a tattoo charity event but was in search of a foundation to support. Becoming a burn survivor made that hunt much shorter. He called the Children\u2019s Burn Foundation<\/a> and sold them on the idea of raising money for child burn victims through the art of the tattoo machine.<\/p>\n The Art of the Machine<\/a> is Keener\u2019s way of giving back, through the tattoo industry he grew up loving, to children who will grow up scarred from burns. A groundswell of support form the tattoo community has left Keener with just over 60 tattoo machines\u2014the electrically-powered device used to inject tiny drops of ink into the tattoo client’s skin at anywhere from 50 to 3,000 times per minute\u2014as well as several original pieces of art that will be auctioned off at Mai Tai Bar July 11, with the proceeds going to the Children\u2019s Burn Foundation. The prospect of raising funds for families facing expensive surgeries and rehabilitation, something that has threatened his own financial welfare, was an opportunity Keener couldn\u2019t pass up.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to bankrupt me, for sure,\u201d Keener said of the nearly $350,000 in medical bills from his own stay in the burn unit. \u201cThat\u2019s overwhelming. So, of course the financial part attracted me. They\u2019ll help out the kids, help out the fathers and mothers focus on their kids rather than \u2018how am I going to pay this bill?’\u201d<\/p>\n The Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, dedicated to preventing childhood burns and providing support to severely burned children and their families, has been operating since 1985. Through donations and fundraising events, the foundation helps pay for surgeries, rehabilitation and therapy as well as helping families with rent and transportation. They also offer summer camps where children recovering from burn injuries can develop friendships with other kids going through similar issues, as well as an international outreach program which helps provide on-site training and education to burn centers in developing countries.<\/p>\n According to the World Health Organization<\/a>, an estimated 250,000 people worldwide die from burns annually, with the majority taking place in low and middle-income countries. The organization’s statistics show that in 2008, over 400,000 people in the U.S. sustained burn injuries despite most burn situations being preventable.<\/p>\n The foundation has several educational programs<\/a> to help prevent burns, including one for caregivers of young children called \u201cCareful, That\u2019s Hot!\u201d designed to highlight the risks in the home, where a majority of pediatric burns occur. For children, the foundation\u2019s L.A. Troupe Safety Smart, a theatrical group that teaches fire safety and burn prevention, travels to area elementary schools, engaging an estimated 53,000 students annually in the greater Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n Carol Horvitz, executive director of the foundation, explained that the foundation works with children from the date of their injury until their eighteenth birthday and longer if the need is there.<\/p>\n \u201cOur philosophy is that we believe in taking care of the child for a full recovery, Horvitz said. \u201cBy that we mean a physical healing, an emotional healing, a pshycho-social reentry into school and the ability for a child to live a wonderful life after the burn in all ways. And that the scarring that\u2019s left behind doesn\u2019t define them as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n Horvitz noted that occasionally the tattoo industry and medical field converge to help the children in their foundation, with children who have had facial features damaged by burns getting tattoos to repair lip-lines and eyebrows. Still, she noted that this was the first time a tattoo-affiliated charity event had contacted the foundation, while dismissing the notion that the shock had anything to do with the perception some people hold about tattoos.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a first,\u201d Horvitz said, adding that they\u2019re thrilled to have Keener as a new friend. \u201cEverybody has good hearts and we\u2019re so happy to be beneficiaries of somebody\u2019s good wishes and good intentions for us. Of all the things in the world we certainly don\u2019t judge people by how they look.\u201d<\/p>\n Kari Barba, tattoo-artist and owner of Outer Limits Tattoo and Body Piercing<\/a> in Long Beach, said that philanthropy isn\u2019t something that\u2019s unique to the tattoo industry; most people want to help other people. Since opening her shop in 1983, Barba has had at least one charity event a year, with last year\u2019s 30th anniversary fundraiser going toward breast cancer research<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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