» Like father, like son:
Jeremy Cortner wants his son Casey to know that scars are nothing to be embarrassed about, that they’re a sign of survival and strength. He had a scar tattooed on his head to match his son’s.
No parent wants to see their child in pain and they will do just about anything to ease it.
Just ask Jeremy Cortner of Chippewa Falls.
Cortner’s son, Casey, was diagnosed at birth with craniosynostosis, a rare condition where bones in the skull fuse together prematurely.
Doctors performed a surgery to release the pressure on Casey’s skull in order to give his brain more room to grow.
He was left with a shaved head and a giant scar.
“When someone’s that young they really don’t think about it,” Cortner said. “They’ll run around in public naked. It wasn’t a big deal for him then, especially when he was young.”
But now, at 6 years old, Casey is getting a little bit more selfconscious about that scar. While he now has a full head of hair that makes the scar less visible, Casey is facing another surgery in July to repair “soft spots” on his skull — making that scar visible once again. But he won’t be alone. His father recently walked into Rezurrection Tattoo in Eau Claire with a freshly shaved scalp and left with a 12-inch scar tattoo, stretching ear to ear, that mimics his son’s real one.
“I was in the car with him and asked him what he would think if I got the same scar he’s got tattooed on my head, but he had no concept of what a tattoo was,” Cortner laughed.
Although Casey didn’t really grasp the idea of a tattoo and didn’t have a full-blown reaction to his father’s, Cortner wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“It’s kind of exactly how I wanted it,” he said. “He liked it, but he acted like it was no big deal.”
And that’s how Cortner and his family treat his son’s scar — like it’s no big deal. But as Casey gets older, Cortner knows his son is going to start noticing that he may not look exactly like everyone else.
“He won’t see anyone like that,” Cortner said. “Deep down, he might think it’s different, that there’s something to be ashamed of.”
Cortner wants his son to know that scars are nothing to be embarrassed about, that they’re a sign of survival and strength.
Cortner chose his “scar,” but he knows Casey didn’t. He and his wife, Amy, hope that when Casey looks back at this challenge, he will have some positive memories, too.
“I don’t have his scar, but by him seeing it (tattoo), he won’t think he’s that different,” Cortner said.
Casey’s surgery is scheduled for the middle of July at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.