Doctor gets tattoo to honor patient's sobriety

Click Here to Recommend Story View larger image Joseph Bartholomew, owner of Hogfish Tattoo and Piercing, gives Dr. Colin Berry a phoenix tattoo inside his Strasburg business on Sept. 18. Berry, who removes tattoos, made a pact with Lani Flores, center, that he'd get a tattoo if she remained clean from substance abuse for one year. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Bartholomew works on Berry's tattoo. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Dr. Collin Berry's son, Sammy, checks out his dad's tattoo. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Catie Berry, 18, a freshman at Virginia Tech, takes a peek at her father's new tattoo. Rich Cooley/Daily

By Ben Orcutt -- borcutt@nvdaily.com

STRASBURG -- Sept. 18 is a day that Dr. Colin Berry and patient Lani Flores will remember for a long time.

That's the day Berry kept a promise to Flores that if she could remain drug-free for a year, he would get a tattoo.

"Yeah, this definitely means a lot to me," Flores said Sept. 18, as Joseph Bartholomew, owner of Hogfish Tattoo and Piercing in Strasburg, inked a black phoenix on Berry's right arm.

"I never thought we'd be doing this," Flores said. "I never thought we'd be here."

Flores, 28, began seeing Berry in February of last year. A gynecologist-obstetrician with Blue Ridge OB/GYN in Front Royal, Berry also treats substance-abuse addicts and, ironically, removes unwanted tattoos.

A Shenandoah County native, Flores now resides in Toms Brook and is the caregiver for her grandparents.

"I had been living in Texas for about three years, and I was coming back here just to visit my grandparents," she said. "When I realized they were in bad shape, I decided to stay permanently. I found [Dr. Berry] on the Internet for the Suboxone treatment."

Diagnosed with a serious kidney ailment, Flores had been treated with the painkiller Vicodin and had become addicted. She sought out Berry because he was authorized to prescribe Suboxone, a drug used to treat substance abuse.

"Suboxone is formulated in such a way as to make abuse unlikely," Berry said in a Sept. 23 e-mail. "First, it doesn't give a feeling of euphoria. Second, it takes effect slowly. Third, it contains Naloxone. That is the stuff we give to overdose victims in the ER. It reverses the effects of opiates precipitously, but is not absorbed sublingually. Because of this, a patient who takes their Suboxone under the tongue (as prescribed) gets no Naloxone. A patient who grinds it up and inhales or injects it gets a big dose of Naloxone. Big enough to reverse any opiates in his system and end his 'high' with quite a jolt. Finally, it has a plateau effect where increased doses cost more, but don't give more effect."

Berry, 48, who has four children, said it was Flores' love of her 8-year-old daughter, Juliana, that won him over.

"The early part of our relationship was all about Lani's relationship with Julie instead of Lani's relationship with opiates," Berry said. "That's what always impressed me about Lani is she'd do just about anything for Julie. Once we started making this about Julie, it got easy. There was no chance I was getting away without the tattoo once Julie started nagging her and saying, 'How much longer before Dr. Berry Bear gets his tattoo?'"

While Berry is not committing himself to making a similar promise to other patients about getting subsequent tattoos, he's not totally ruling it out.

"Well, if anybody out there thinks they can do that, they can come and stay clean, and we'll talk because there isn't very much I wouldn't do for a little kid," he said.

Juliana said she likes Berry's tattoo, and she also likes that her mom is staying clean.

"She's nicer," Juliana said.

Flores agreed.

"It feels great, and I wasn't a very nice mom before," she said. "I'm not perfect now, but we have a better relationship."

When it comes to trying to kick a drug habit, Berry is quick to interject that there is no finish line, because the goal is to constantly stay clean.

"Because there's always challenges," Flores said.

Flores appreciates that Berry is proud of her achievement, which started out with some failed drug screens.

"What's best is my daughter's proud of me," Flores said. "We had a talk a couple of nights ago, and I wanted her to understand why everybody was gonna be here. I took her back to when we were in Texas and I was going through all that sad stuff, and she says, 'Well, it's OK now mommy because you see a real doctor for your medicine.' So she knows the difference between bad medicine and real medicine, even at her age, and [that] I didn't do things that I was supposed to do. When your 6-year-old knows that you're sick and that we're gonna go for a ride so we can feel better, that's not a good thing at all. Those days are definitely over."

While Berry's tattoo is a symbol of Flores' journey, it's not the foremost reminder of why she's on her current path, Flores said.

"No, the reminder is Julie," she said. "Dr. Berry said something that is really real, and when I think about something that's bothering me or I have that feeling [of using], to hug my daughter. Where before, I didn't care. I was mad. If I was sick, I was hurting. I was needing. I didn't care if she had to go with me to go get something to make me feel better. Now, it's been so long that I couldn't have the guts to tell her, 'You gotta stay,' or 'I'm going somewhere where you can't go,' because she's like my shadow now. We spent a lot of time together. There is no telling her, 'I'll be back,' without her wanting to know what's going on. So I really couldn't get away with it with her, and that is a good thing. So with him saying if I feel like that, give her a hug, it's definitely true. There's just no way I could leave her like that."

The design of Berry's tattoo was decided by committee, consisting of his secretary, his wife, Sue, and their children, Katie, 18, Annie, 14, Betsy, 9, and Sammy, 4.

"I'm real excited," Mrs. Berry said. "I'm all for it. I thought it was a nice thing."

Annie and Katie spoke in a similar vein.

"I think it's cool because now I can say, 'Well, my dad has a tattoo, too,'" Annie said.

"I think it's cool as hell, man," said Katie, a freshman at Virginia Tech. "I mean, come on, how many people can say their dad is getting their first tattoo?"

In conjunction with this being National Prescription Drug and Medicine Awareness Month, the Warren Coalition is sponsoring a seminar at 7 p.m. tonight at the Warren County Government Center titled "An Ounce of Prevention." The guest speaker is state police Special Agent Robert H. Houston, who will talk about the legal aspects of medicine and prescription drug abuse, followed by a question-and-answer session. The seminar is free, and light refreshments will be served. The public also is invited to bring in expired prescription drugs, which will be collected and disposed of by Front Royal Police Chief Richard H. Furr. For more information, call Michelle Shenk, prevention specialist at the Warren Coalition, at 636-6385.