Tanya and Adam Phillips, proud parents to 18-month-old daughter Honey-Rae, know that their latest tattoos may stir up talk. But for them, the unusual designs – a pattern of blemishes that matches Honey-Rae’s strawberry birthmark – was totally worth it.
Honey-Rae was born with the distinctive marks, which are completely harmless but cover the right side of her body from her toes to lower back. Mum Tanya told the Daily Mirror she was shocked to find her daughter getting pointed at and whispered about in public when her daughter was not yet 12 months old.
Sadly, it was something Tanya had been anticipating since her daughter was born.
“Although in our eyes she was perfect, I knew other people would cruelly point and stare at her,” she told the Mirror.
That hurtful incident spurred Tanya and hubby Adam to do something big, to show little Honey-Rae her natural birthmark wasn’t ‘different’. So at Christmas, Tanya paid for Adam to have his tattoo done on his right leg, and he did the same for her just ahead of her 40th birthday this week.
“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 told the Mirror.
“We knew we had to do something to ensure Honey-Rae grew up knowing she was very much loved.”
