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Ready for the most misleading story ever to grace the pages of the Mirror?
The 31-year-old mum had her two little boys Adam and Jack after five years of trying for children.
But because Jack was born with a condition that requires him to be injected once a week, she decided to get him tattooed so she could administer the medication to the right baby, reports Daily Star.
Explaining what forced her to make this decision, she said that when she went back to work, her mother-in-law offered to babysit, but during that time she accidentally injected Adam instead of Jack.
“She immediately noticed her mistake called 911 and they were transferred to hospital.
“By the time I got there Adam had been given the reversal agent and they were both happily sipping on juice loving the attention.”
To stop it from happening again, she said her doctor recommended a medical tattoo – a freckle, no bigger than the end of a pencil eraser, on an area of skin that’s easily seen, while the child is under mild sedation similar to dental offices.
And in two to three years – when the babies have developed more personal features – it will begin to fade.
But as soon as her mother-in-law discovered what she had done, she ‘lost her s**t’.
Look, it’s not that we expect down-the-line journalism from any of Britain’s tabloids. I read the little summary at the top, which said “The woman took to Reddit to ask users whether she was in the wrong for tattooing one of her little boys so that she could tell them apart after her mother-in-law ‘lost her s***’.” Then, as I often do, I decided to defend this mother and play devil’s advocate. For clearly, a mother who tattoos her son to tell him apart from his twin brother isn’t making great choices. Right? And of course I pictured the tattoo as a flaming dragon, spread from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, which would morph and distort horrifically as the boy grew.
Whelp, turns out there is a LOT MORE to this story.
First, the mother-in-law is the real devil. She gave the wrong kid the medicine! She was the one who couldn’t tell them apart. So how on earth she can turn around and get MAD when the mom takes a productive step towards preventing that from happening again is beyond me. Lady, we’re here because of you. You’re the one who made everyone realize the risk here. Get off your high horse.
Secondly… we’re talking about a tiny dot. A freckle tat that will fade in a couple years. Just a little dot to tide us over until the kid can dress himself in a red shirt on the days that his brother wears blue. Or, you know, let people know he’s the medicine one. So much for the dragon.
To me, this is the same as piercing your baby’s ears. I don’t have much of a dog in the fight considering I neither have a baby, nor do I have any clue how much pierced ears hurt. But if I had identical twin daughters and one of them needed a medicine that might hurt the other, I’d consider piercing their ears. Of course! Buy some 14 karat fake studs and pimp those lobes out like Barry Bonds? Fatherhood just became fun.
Shut up, mother-in-law. Shut up, Mirror. Or don’t actually. It’s more fun to get drawn in and puzzle out the truth.