‘Father of the Year Award’ goes to this man
A Canadian man got a replica of his son’s birthmark tattooed onto his body in order to help boost the child’s self-esteem.
Derek Prue Sr observed how his eight-year-old son Derek Jr was struggling with confidence issues. Derek Jr was born with a birthmark across his chest and abdomen region.
Prue Sr then took it upon himself to make amends. He spent over 30 hours getting a large replica of the birthmark tattooed onto his body – in exactly the same area as his son’s birthmark.
Derek Jr recalled the moment he saw the tattoo for the first time.
He said: “Me and my sisters played for a little while in the pool, and then my dad said ‘Derek, come over here, I want to show you something.’
“Then he took off his shirt and there was a huge tattoo of my birthmark there.”
Prue Sr. became visibly emotional when telling Reuters how the idea occurred.
Derek Prue Sr. endured 30 hours of tattooing to get a replica of his son's birthmark on his torso, in the hopes of making his 8-year-old feel less self-conscious pic.twitter.com/nP4gHVciUp
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 16, 2020
“I knew he was self-conscious, and that made me want to show him he wasn’t the only one. We both have the same mark.
“It felt good to do it. It’s a long process to do it, I thought it was gonna be a few hours, but it was about 30.
“After maybe three or four hours, I said, ‘Are we almost done?’ Tony [the tattooist] was like, ‘Yeah, we’ve almost done the outline.'”
Derek Jr said it caught him by surprise – but he really appreciates his father’s efforts.
The eight-year-old said: “I was happy, and I was a little confused because I didn’t know that he was gonna do that.”
Prue Sr said: “I wanted to see his reaction. I wanted to see he was happy that I did it. Now we have the same marks for life.”
