parents

Brave dad gets the perfect tattoo to make his daughter smile again.

What a man.

Charlotte received her first cochlear implant in 2013 when she was four after her family discovered she was profoundly deaf in her left ear.

Her parents weren’t surprised with the diagnosis, as Charlotte’s maternal grandmother and older brother Lewis also suffer from hearing impairment and wear hearing aids.

But the little girl was feeling left out and insecure, so her dad got himself a tattoo to show her how he felt.

Alistair Campbell, from Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island, had the tattoo done after six-year-old Charlotte had her second cochlear implant put in.

He told the New Zealand Herald he did it to show his daughter that he could go through a bit of pain for her.

Although cochlear implants are controversial and have been rejected by many within the deaf community, they are designed to replace the function of the damaged inner ear.

Whilst hearing aids make sounds louder, cochlear implants help those who suffer from moderate to profound hearing loss by transferring sound to the sufferer’s hearing nerves, according to Australian Hearing.

Charlotte’s mother, Anita, said that she hoped the implants would improve Charlotte’s quality of life and that they have already helped her daughter socially.

“She wouldn’t talk to anybody – and now she’s pretty much a social butterfly,” she said.

Anita Campbell’s sentiments were echoed by Mary Jane Boland, of The Hearing House, who said “The key thing is Charlotte does all the things hearing kids can do. She lives a really ordinary life.”

What do you think of Alistair’s tattoo? 

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Top Comments

guest 9 years ago

this may be a stupid questtion but why the implants a rejected by the deaf community?

random dude 9 years ago

I was wondering the same thing.

I've read a little about this and my guess is that (and it is a guess) it portrays deafness as something that 'needs to be fixed' and thereby diminishes the life and experiences of the deaf person who need 'fixing'.

It would be interesting to read the thoughts of people from the deaf community who could elaborate on this.