Heartwarming Parents and Their Tattoos

I thought with all the craziness and animosity out in the world right now we’d keep it nice and light hearted with the blog post this week, also lots of pictures!

This week I want to shed some light on what I think of as Inspirational tattoos. A dad from Kansas, US has made headlines with his inspiring tattoo. Josh Marshall won a #bestbalddad contest in 2016 with a tattoo on his head. Marshall’s son had to undergo life saving brain surgery due to cancer, and shortly after chemo, causing all his son’s hair to fall out. Following this Marshall’s young son said to him, he feels like a monster with the scar now exposed. In response Marshall got a tattoo of the same scar to show his son that there is nothing wrong with going through treatment and wearing your scars. Marshall is not the only parent who has gone the distance to make their child feel comfortable in their skin with tattoos. 

Another dad, Martin Watts, did something similar. Watts has 2 sons, both with a heart condition, SVAS that is developed in utero and basically makes your main large blood vessel develop too small to do its job. “It’s not easy for a 6-year-old boy or any child of any age to have that type of surgery,” Leanne Watts, the boy’s mom, told the New York Post News. “When [he] saw the scar, he just said, ‘Is this where they have cut me to fix my heart?’ We’ve told him it should be something to be proud of and he shouldn’t be ashamed by what has happened to him.” With the younger of his son’s already coping with his new scar, and his older son needing the same procedure Watts decided to get the scar inked on himself, to show the boy’s pride in their survival. There are countless stories of inspiring parents out there and it’s not just limited to scar tattoos. 

Bringing it back to Canada, two parents in Quebec supported their son Jacob’s journey through diabetes with insulin pump tattoos. At age 3 Jacob and his parents, Philippe Aumond and Camille Boivin, found out that Jacob had type 1 diabetes. At first, his mother says, he was really excited to get the insulin pump. It was replacing multiple insulin shots in a day that the young boy had to get. As he started kindergarten though he started to notice differences, she told the Toronto Star, “one time he told me that he felt different and he was wondering if he was alone in the world, you know, wearing a pump.” She explained to him that everyone is different but went on to say, “before we had the pump, I think the way he felt is that having shots was just a little part of his day and nobody had to know. But then now, he was wearing a pump, and people could see it and people were asking questions and I think that’s what bothered him a little bit. So he felt really alone.” This is when Aumond (dad) and Boivin (mom) decided to get insulin pumps inked on themselves with a bit of a family twist. Aumond’s insulin tube coming off the pump is made of barbed wire with the pump screen displaying, “Jacob” and text above saying, “Forever linked together.” While Boivin’s is a typical insulin pump with, “Forever linked” displayed on the pump screen. Boivin told the Toronto star after getting the ink that, “It is a great thing for him, and we were thrilled just to see his smile when he saw those pumps. It made our day, that’s for sure.”

There are so many other inspiring stories out there of family’s going the distance to support their children through difficult journeys with these unique tattoos. It’s so cool to see the different ways that people use tattoos. Most of us get tattooed for fun or to commemorate something important to us, but these medical tattoos are incredibly unique. It’s so cool to see that tattooing can be used in this way to lift a child’s spirits and connect families on such a profound level.

Sources:

• https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cancer-tattoo-best-bald-dad-imgur_uk_5768f856e4b0a4f99adc642a

• https://nypost.com/2019/06/21/dads-tattoo-matches-sons-life-saving-heart-surgery-scar/

• https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2011/12/15/parents_get_insulinpump_tattoos_to_support_diabetic_son.html

Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!