ALBERTA DAD GOT 30-HOUR TATTOO TO MATCH SON’S BIRTHMARK
An Alberta dad spent about 30 hours getting a birthmark tattoo to match his 8-year-old son’s.
Derek Prue Sr. wanted his son, Derek Jr., to know he was not the only one with the mark, and TODAY told the story in a profile on December 17, 2020.
Derek Jr. had a large birthmark across a big part of his torso. His dad noticed the boy was growing self-conscious about it and wore a shirt at the pool to cover it.
“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,” Prue told TODAY.
He said the decision was easy. “I didn’t have any hesitation.”
Photos, a plan and a very long process
Derek Jr.’s mother, Shanel Prue, took pictures of the birthmark from different angles. She told her son the photos were for the doctor, which was believable because the boy gets the birthmark checked once a year, TODAY reported.
Prue took the photos to tattoo artist Tony Gibert at Juicy Quill Tattoo in Stony Plain, Alberta. Prue said Gibert used them to map the marks proportionately and trace the design.
Prue had only one other tattoo, and it was about 20 years old. He did not realize what he was signing up for.
“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,” he told TODAY.
His longest sitting ran about six hours, and he said he and the artist kept going until one of them called it. Prue described the pain as bearable, and topical freezing took the edge off in some spots. He also learned the rib cage is one of the most painful places to get inked.
The big reveal at the hotel pool
Prue unveiled the finished tattoo to his son at a hotel swimming pool, CBS News reported. He simply took off his shirt.
“He didn’t know what to think,” Prue said of the first moment.
Then it sank in. “He kept asking, ‘Is it real?’ He was smiling a lot. I could tell he felt good about it,” Prue said.
In the days that followed, Derek Jr. kept asking to see the tattoo again, Prue told TODAY.
CBC News reported that the boy said he would swim without a shirt after seeing his dad’s tattoo.
What happened next
Juicy Quill Tattoo shared the gesture on its Facebook page on December 10, 2020. The studio called it “very cool” and said it was glad to be part of the family’s story, TODAY reported.
Prue said the message behind it was simple. “I wanted him to feel good,” he told TODAY.
“The common denominator is, it’s OK to be different,” he added.
Prue also told CBC, “Now we have the same marks for life,” a line KTXS repeated in its own coverage.
The tattoo artist told CBC the project took about 30 hours over six to eight weeks to complete.
