Mom Changes Tattoo To Support Transgender Son

Ace Peace is a 15 year-old transgender teen living in Calgary who came out as trans to his family almost a year ago. In a moving show of support, his mom, Lindsay, had a tattoo altered to support her trans child. Now ink that once depicted a little girl portrays a son instead.

About ten years ago, Ace’s dad, Steve, who is a tattoo artist, tattooed images of all three of his and Lindsay’s kids on Lindsay’s arm. Ace appears as a little girl with pigtails and a pink dress, an image that is no longer reflective of Ace’s gender identity. Ace came out to his parents as trans in a letter last New Year’s Eve, and, since then, the tattoo has at times been a source of awkwardness. Lindsay explained to Metro News,

People would say, ‘Oh, who is on your arm?... We were on holidays, and people would say, “Is that your kids?” And here I am with three boys, and very clearly a little girl was on my arm.

At one point, Ace asked his mom to have the portrait of him removed, but Steve and Lindsay decided to change it instead, something that Steve described as “an easy fix.” In the updated version, Ace’s pink dress has been replaced by a blue t-shirt and shorts, and the pigtails have been covered by a tree branch. It’s an impressive cover up: you wouldn’t know that it had ever been different just from looking at it. In a Facebook post, Steve explained why they decided to change the tattoo, writing “As our oldest child Ace is FTM transgender we need to update the tattoo to fully represent who he is in his happy new awesome life.”

Ace told Global News of when he saw the updated tattoo: “It made me really happy because I didn’t realize how much [my mother] believed me. It finally fits.” Ace’s parents and brothers have supported his transition. Steve explained to Metro News, “As parents, you say, ‘Whatever makes you happy,’ and we’ve seen him become happier and happier as time goes on, which makes us happy.”

Image: belyjmishka/Fotolia