“This broke my heart,” John told BuzzFeed about how he felt when his now 8-year-old son, Gabriel, admitted that the scar on his head made ​​him feel like a monster.

The harsh treatments and invasive operations were over, but Gabriel will carry the scar with him for the rest of his life.

“I told him if people wanted to stare, they could stare at both of us,” John told BuzzFeed.

The 28-year-old father entered a competition called #Bestbalddad, organized by children’s cancer organization St. Baldrick Foundation. It’s a competition where dads shave their heads in support of their children who have or have had cancer. John sent in a picture that included his tattoo.

“Got my son’s scar tattooed to help his self confidence,” John wrote in his application. And it went straight to the jury’s heart. The picture won and has since been spread widely online.

“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,” Alison Sutton of the St. Baldrick Foundation told BuzzFeed.