The pair win the hearts of thousands around the world. A father has gone to extraordinary lengths to show his love and support for his sɪᴄᴋ young son by getting a tattoo on his head matching a scar the boy bears from brain Surgery. Gabriel Marshall of Kansas, eight, was diagnosed last year with anaplastic astrocytoma, a type of malignant brain tumor, the treatment for which was Surgery.
While the operation did not remove all of the tumors, he has been free of therapy for nine months and is presently stable. Gabriel’s father, Josh, 28, grew concerned after the surgery about how the scar left on his son’s skull from the surgery was harming his self-confidence. In fact, the little youngster confessed to his father that he felt like a “Monster with the Scar.” This was a reality that devastated his father’s heart. To make his kid feel more normal, Josh decided to get a tattoo on his head that looked just like his son’s cancer scar. ‘I told him they could gaze at both of us if they wanted to,’ the adoring father told BuzzFeed.
The moving gesture came to wide attention after Josh entered the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s #BestBaldDad competition in honor of Father’s Day. The photo of him and Gabriel showing off their shaved heads side-by-side went up on Facebook as an entry in the competition with Josh’s explanation: ‘Me and my son at this year’s St. Baldrick’s event in Wichita, Kansas. Got my son’s scar tattooed to help his self-confidence.’ Unsurprisingly, Josh won the competition, and subsequently had the photo of him and Gabriel shared all over the web. It was described variously as ‘awesome’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘respect’ and picked up by blogs and public social media pages.
One blogger reported to her followers: ‘This father got a tattoo of his son’s scar which the little boy got from the Surgery he had to get rid of his Cancer. The amazing dad said he did it to help boost his son’s confidence. ‘Amazing father!’ Dad gets a scar tattoo on his head to support his son. ‘THIS is a HERO! May God bless them both!’
Speaking to BuzzFeed, Josh revealed that Gabriel loves his father’s tattoo, saying it makes him feel like they are ‘twins’.
