Derek Prue Jr. is 8 years old and has a birthmark on his chest that made him feel different. 🩹
Every time he went to the pool in Edmonton, Canada, he refused to take off his shirt. His father, Derek Prue Sr., noticed and said nothing. Quietly, he sought out tattoo artist Tony Gibbert and asked him for something unusual: to reproduce that same birthmark, in the same place, on his own torso.
It took 30 hours spread over several sessions, and the tattoo artist was so moved that he charged only a fraction of the cost. The father kept it a secret until it was almost finished. He showed it to him a day before going swimming, and there, in front of the mirror, they both had the same mark. The boy told his mother that now he would take off his shirt, as long as his dad was nearby. 💙