One father is being hailed as the "best dad ever" after getting a tattoo on his head to match the surgical scar that his son was left with after cancer treatment.
Just last year, 8-year-old Gabriel Marshall was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare malignant brain tumor. According to BuzzFeed, he subsequently underwent life-saving surgery and has been off treatment for nine months, but the surgery left him with a large scar on the side of his head.
Gabriel's dad, Josh Marshall, told BuzzFeed that his son admitted to feeling like a "monster" because of his scar.
"This broke my heart," Marshall told BuzzFeed. That's when the loving father decided to do something about it and get a matching tattoo on the side of his own head in solidarity with his son.
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"I told him that if people wanted to stare, they could stare at both of us," he said.
The photo has understandably gone viral, and Marshall has rightfully won the Best Bald Dad Award from the St. Baldrick's Foundation. The organization honors dads who have shaved their heads in solidarity with their own child or a child they know who has or had cancer.
Alison Sutton, the foundation’s social media manager, told BuzzFeed that it was "the first time we’ve seen an entry where a dad went above and beyond shaving his head in solidarity with his child and got a tattoo to build his son’s self-confidence."
Marshall, however, wrote in a Facebook post, "I'm no better then [sic] any of the other contestants," adding, "We are all great fathers that would go to any extent to help our children."
Gabriel, for his part, told BuzzFeed that he loves his dad's tattoo and the fact that it makes them "twins."