When Benjamin Lloyd, 25, from New Zealand set a challenge on Facebook to get 50 likes on a post he shared, he didn’t quite expect it to go viral.
The tattoo artist had shared a post, giving his friend’s son a customized ‘tattoo sleeve’, featuring skulls and roses.
Lloyd shared photos on Facebook on 22nd May, with the caption, “Nothing brings me more joy than boosting a kid’s confidence with a custom tattoo.”
If his post received 50 likes, he would offer tattoos to sick kids at Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.
The post received more than 450,000 likes. True to his word, Lloyd attended the hospital on 26th May and tattooed the kids up. The tattoos are drawn using an organic non-toxic ink and they are temporary.
The photos reveal how much the kids loved their tattoos.
Lloyd explained he was inspired to use his art skills to build kids’ confidence after his own experiences as a child.
“When I was two years old I had quite a bad burn on my hand and had a skin graft with my bum skin on my hand. I had a big complex about it,” he explained to Stuff NZ.
“I was teased every day at school and so I would draw over my hand and up my sleeve. I just got better and better, eventually I had a line up of people wanting me to draw on them, I was doing deals with kids swapping cards and marbles”.
