It's pretty great to be unique, but sometimes having differences that other people can see makes life hard.
Image via iStock.
For kids who are already dealing with growing pains while also interacting with other kids who might not be so accepting of their differences, life can be a whole lot trickier.
Thankfully, there are a number of amazing parents who are making sure their kids don't have to walk through this judgmental world alone.
Josh Marshall is one of these parents.
His son, Gabe, has a rare malignant brain tumor called an anaplastic astrocytoma that was removed nine months ago, but a large scar remains on his head — a scar that Gabe felt self-conscious about.
Heartbroken that his son was so affected by his distinctive new mark, Josh did the only thing he could think of to help level the playing field — he got a matching head scar tattoo:
"I told him if people wanted to stare, they could stare at both of us," Josh told BuzzFeed.
As if that wasn't cool enough, Josh entered the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s #BestBaldDad competition, which honors kids who are bald from cancer treatments and the fathers/uncles/grandfathers who shave their heads in solidarity.
Josh and Gabe's awesome photo took first place.
The parents of 3-year-old Honey-Rae also turned to a tattoo artist to make their daughter feel less alone.
Honey-Rae was born with a strawberry-colored birth mark that covers almost half of the right side of her body. The birthmark didn't affect her physically, but her parents feared how it would affect her emotionally as she grew up.
They, like Josh, got matching birthmark tattoos so that Honey-Rae would always know that she fits in perfectly with her family.
"Most people might think it's very extreme, but to us it was the natural thing to do to ensure our daughter never felt different or alone in the world," Tanya, Honey-Rae's mother, told The Mirror.
"Adam and I decided straightaway that we wanted Honey-Rae to feel special, that her birthmark was something to feel proud of and not embarrassed by."
Alistair Campbell got not one, but two tattoos of cochlear implants — because he doesn't play favorites and always wants his kids to know they're not alone.
Two years after Charlotte Campbell got a very visible cochlear implant at age 4, her father, Alistair, decided he wanted to do something to show her the thing that makes her different is actually pretty cool.
You guessed it, he got a tattoo of the implant on his own head:
Photo courtesy of Alistair Campbell.
He didn't stop there, though. In March 2016, when his son, Lewis, also got a cochlear implant, Alistair told Upworthy, "I got the other side done."
Photo courtesy of Alistair Campbell.
Alistair didn't get his tattoos because his kids felt different — he got them because he wanted them to know that he loves them and will stand by them no matter what.
"I got the tattoo(s) to support my kids in their journey," Alistair told Upworthy. And because he's the coolest dad ever.
According to him, his wife wasn't pleased by his decision — not because he was supporting their children, but only because she's not a fan of tattoos.
Every day, kids look to their parents to learn how the world works.
If parents teach them from an early age that the things that make them — that make all of us — different are things worth celebrating and embracing, they'll believe it.
Doing this doesn't require getting a tattoo, but I think we can all agree getting a solidarity tattoo for your kid is the quintessential way to be the hippest parent at school drop-off.
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