A dedicated dad spent more than 30 hours in a tattoo artist’s chair getting inked with his 8-year-old son’s birthmark to make the boy feel less self-conscious. Derek Prue Sr., from Stony Plain, Alberta in Canada, didn’t want his son, Derek Jr., to be embarrassed to take his shirt off anymore at the swimming pool and vowed to do something to help. Now, the dad and son have matching brown patches and Derek Jr. has had a major confidence boost.
- Derek Sr. thought it would be a one-session job. When Derek Sr. decided to head to Juicy Quill Tattoo for the tattoo, he assumed at first that it wouldn’t take very long and would be finished over the course of an afternoon. In reality, he had to do nine sittings that totaled over 30 hours once done! “I thought it was going to be a one session kind of thing. But three hours turned into about 30 hours. So it’s been a bit of a process,” he said.
- Even something without tons of detail takes time. Derek Sr. admitted that he had no idea just how intricate a process getting this tattoo of his son’s birthmark would be. “The first sitting, I think, was close to four hours. And I didn’t really look to see what was going on,” he recalled. “So I thought at the end of four hours it was done. So I said, ‘Is it almost done?’ and he said, ‘I’m almost done with the outline.'”
- His son’s reaction to the work was worth every second. When they took a trip to the local swimming pool, Derek Jr. planned to keep his shirt on as usual. Then his dad took off his shirt and the boy saw that his dad had the same birthmark as him. “That’s cool!” he said when he saw the mark.
- The tattoo artist who did the work was touched by their story. “This is something that really affected his everyday life, giving him more confidence, letting him know he wasn’t the only person with this big mark. Now it’s forever,” said Juicy Quill artist Tony Gilbert. “It’s really cool to see him smile.” See more from the story on Global News.
