David V Chi

The man behind the curtain

David V Chi got his first taste of punk rock in 1978 by buying his first punk collection in the rough streets of Chicago in Little Village, a mixed neighborhood of Latins, Italians and Irish. It was the equivalency of Hell's Kitchen in New York. David was sent to Hollywood at an early age and has supported the punk scene ever since. David is a working class punk that had his first apartment at the age of 14 that would hold sometimes 14 squatters at a time. He would hold Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners for his friends. David did time at Hotel Hell and the infamous Wilcox Hotel that Lee Ving from Fear sings about in his lyrics. He was part of a crew called the Hollywood Rat Patrol, good friends to the LADS. David then did some photography with bands like Plasmatics & Motorhead, Addicts, Bad Brains and a few more compliments of  Phantom's Productions in early 1980's. The 90's crept up and I was back living in the Windy City but that was short lived. After protesting against corruption he was set up by Chicago's most corrupt and sent away for awhile in  what they call the max. He came back to LA in 2000 where his family were all pro wrestlers. He trained for a bit with them in the XPW days then decided he loved taking photos still so he started all over again taking photos of lucha wrestling and the punk scene. Later his family formed Santino Bros which is a strong elite wrestling academy and Lucha Girls came and then Lucha Punk was born. David then created the Lucha Punk Gallery. Then he put a team of crazy ass reporters together to give you the Lucha Punk News.