Supportive dad gets a tattoo to match his brave young son's brain cancer surgery scar

A father has gone to extraordinary lengths to show his love and support for his sick 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 an anaplastic astrocytoma, a type of malignant brain tumor, the treatment for which was surgery.

While the surgery didn't get all of the tumor out, it has been nine months since he stopped treatment and is currently stable. 

However, after the surgery, Gabriel's father Josh, 28, became concerned about how the scar left behind on his son's head from the surgery was affecting his self-confidence. 

In fact, the little boy told his dad that he felt like a 'monster' with the scar. A fact that simply broke his father's heart. 

So, to help his son feel normal, Josh came up with the idea of getting a tattoo on his head to look identical to his son's cancer scar. 

'I told him if people wanted to stare, they could stare at both of us,' the doting dad 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 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'. 

But not all the reaction has been favorable.

Some chided the father's choice: 'so Tattoos now boost confidence huh? na wao oo! Arrant Nonsense!'

'What about when it heals' posted another. 

Others have also expressed doubt on whether it was real, one suggesting it was just a 'marker'. 

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