When he’s not adding ink to his own body, Dr. Dave Ores, a heavily tattooed Lower East Side general practitioner, is busy removing tear drops from the faces of reformed gang-bangers, gratis.
But now the motorcycle-loving doc is the one who needs help — to the tune of $30,000 — or he’ll lose his East 2nd Street office over a tax snafu.
So Ores launched a GoFundMe.com page to try to raise enough dough to avoid eviction next week.
A pioneer of affordable health care whose unique approach predates ObamaCare, Ores, 55, runs a no-frills practice where needy patients can get teardrops, swastikas and other unwanted gang and prison tattoos laser- removed from hands, faces and necks for free.
“My niche is the working poor,” he told The Post, explaining that many of his clients are trying to piece their lives back together and, for example, don’t need “Love” and “Hate” showing on their knuckles during a job interview.
He also provides basic care for restaurant workers whose employers pay a low monthly premium.
The Columbia grad even has a pay-what-you-can Wednesday special to encourage people to see a doctor.
Ores pays $1,900 monthly rent for the office, part of the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, a nonprofit he mistakenly thought didn’t have to pay taxes for 10 years due to a J-51 abatement.
But he said LESPMHA has recently switched hands.
“The first I heard of this was last fall,” he said of the property tax issue. “No phone call, no e-mail, no anything.”
Before he can find out what happened, he needs to save his practice, where he treats 8,000 patients.
“I can’t be evicted and fight this. I need to be not evicted and then get answers,” he said.
His GoFundMe crowd-sourcing effort had raised more than $10,000 by Thursday afternoon and, whatever Ores gets, he’ll bring to court Tuesday.
Even if it’s not the full $30,000, he hopes that he’ll then get more time to pay off the tax bill and keep the office open.