Parents will often go to extraordinary lengths to make their children feel accepted, but one Canadian father took that commitment to a level few could ever imagine.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!After noticing his young son becoming increasingly self-conscious about a large birthmark that covers much of his body, Derek Prue made a decision that would take months of planning, 30 hours in the tattoo chair and plenty of pain — all to ensure his son never felt alone.
Prue, who lives in Alberta, decided to have his own torso tattooed with an almost identical version of the birthmark his eight-year-old son, Derek Jr., was born with.
The touching gesture came after he realised his son had started hiding his body whenever they went swimming.
Rather than simply reassuring him with words, Prue wanted to show his son that there was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
“I didn’t have any hesitation,” Prue told TODAY about his decision, which required 30 hours of painful tattooing. “My son was feeling more and more self conscious as he was growing up, and the idea popped in my head to have the same mark as him. … I saw it as a chance to make him feel more comfortable.”
To bring the idea to life, Prue enlisted tattoo artist Tony Gibert from Juicy Quill Tattoo in Stony Plain, Alberta.
Recreating the birthmark wasn’t straightforward. Because of its size and unique shape, careful planning was needed to ensure every detail lined up correctly.
Prue explained that Derek Jr.’s mother secretly helped gather reference images without revealing the real reason.
“Little Derek’s mom took pictures at different angles,” Prue said, explaining how Gibert created the tattoo to look exactly like his son’s birthmark. “She told him it was for the doctor.”
Since Derek Jr.’s birthmark is routinely examined during annual check-ups, the explanation never raised any suspicion.
Using those photographs, Gibert meticulously mapped out the design before beginning what would become an incredibly demanding tattoo process.
“Tony then took all those pictures and proportionately did the dots in the same place and did the tracing,” said Prue. “The first session was four hours. It was so painful, I was gritting my teeth. I asked, ‘Are we done?’ Tony said we were done with the outline. I had no idea it was such a big process.”
Although Prue already had one tattoo from around two decades earlier, this experience proved to be something entirely different.
With much of the artwork stretching across his ribs, he quickly discovered why the area has a reputation as one of the most painful places to be tattooed.
Even so, the discomfort never changed his mind.
He described the pain as “bearable” and said topical freezing treatments helped in certain areas to make the sessions more manageable.
“The longest session I sat for was about six hours,” he added, saying that he and Gibert would keep going “until one of us tapped out.”
The tattoo studio was equally moved by the project and later shared the story on Facebook after completing the work.
“Very cool that he could do this to help his (son’s) confidence and that we could be a part of their story,” the post read in part.
Once the tattoo had finally healed, Prue planned the perfect moment to reveal it.
During a family trip to a hotel swimming pool, he simply removed his shirt and waited for his son to notice.
The reaction was everything he had hoped for.
“He didn’t know what to think,” Prue said. “He kept asking, ‘Is it real?’ He was smiling a lot. I could tell he felt good about it.”
The surprise didn’t end there.
Over the following days, Derek Jr. repeatedly asked to see the tattoo again, still amazed that his father had chosen to make such a permanent gesture for him.
For Prue, every hour spent enduring the tattoo needle was worth it if it helped his son feel more confident in his own skin.
“I wanted him to feel good,” he said. “I don’t think any parent likes to see their child go through that, but everyone has at some point. … This was one instance where I thought I could do something about it.”
While the story has resonated with people around the world, Prue insists the tattoo was never about attracting attention or praise.
For him, it was always about one message.
“The common denominator is, it’s OK to be different,” he said. “Everybody feels that at some point, and it’s OK. And at the same time, if you can do something to make another person feel better, it’s rewarding. It was almost more rewarding for me than it was for him.”
What an incredible father!
Featured image credit: Facebook/Shanel Prue
