Tattoo Artist Gives Little Girl In Leg Braces The Best Gift Ever
A tattoo artist had observed the feisty spirit of the little girl in leg braces and worked hard to give her the best gift ever.
Aaron Guillemette, a tattoo artist in Fall River, Massachusetts created an incredible design for a very special little girl. The man knew 8-year-old Hope Laliberte, as she is in his daughter’s class and he had watched how the disability had not slowed down the girl one bit.
The tattoo artist was even more interested when Hope expressed interest in having Disney villains as the design theme. The incredible drawings feature two classic baddies from well-known animated movies — Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians — and they turned out amazing, according to the Huffington Post.
“I’m glad to be in a position where I can help the community in any way. When I was first approached about designing Hope’s braces, I thought it would be an awesome idea — especially when I heard what the subject matter would be. Hope wanted Disney villains on her braces, not princesses.”
Hope and her twin, Paige were born at 24-weeks premature and even though her sister has a normal life, Hope hasn’t been as lucky and has had to deal with a lot in her young life. The girls’ mother, Laliberte-Lebeau, said Hope has to wear leg braces, eat a special diet to control her epilepsy, and suffers from cerebral palsy.
When Hope expressed a desire to have special designs on her new set of braces, mom and dad, Aaron Lebeau, decided they would do anything to make their little girl’s wish a reality. Speaking to Today Laliberte-Lebeau said they were determined to give Hope what she wanted.
“As a family, we do whatever we can to make Hope happy. Anything we can do to make her smile, we do. So this was one of those things — she had her heart set on Disney Villains, and since the brace clinic didn’t offer that as a design, we asked Aaron to help us.”
After trying to figure out how to get the designs on the leg braces on a permanent basis, the tattoo artist figured out a way. Guillemette turned his art into self-adhesive labels, which were placed on the plastic brace material and covered with polyurethane to keep them in place. Mom was ecstatic.
“She absolutely loved them. She screamed when she saw them. She can be shy sometimes, but when she saw them she ran to Aaron and gave him a hug. She loves wearing them now. At bedtime, she reminds me that she gets to wear her braces tomorrow.”
“I screamed,” Hope told the Huffington Post. But she was not the only one who was excited.
The experience was rewarding for Guillemette as well, he told Today Parents, “The look on her face when I gave them to her was worth everything it took to make them.”
[Image via Jack Foley/Herald News]
