Richard adopted his son, Jonathan, in 2005 in New Jersey when the boy was just aged five. At the time, Richard was in a long-term relationship with another man. The two men split up around four years ago and Richard is now engaged to a new partner.
Jonathan is now in the US Navy, and a few weeks ago he texted Richard to tell him that he was getting a tattoo.
‘Don’t you dare,’ was Richard’s initial response.
He says he’s not anti tattoos per se, but questioned his son’s motives for getting the work done.
‘How is it going to look when he is older? What is he going to choose? Will he regret it? Will they see it on a job interview? … It’s the Jewish mother in me!’ he laughed.
Richard thought that his son had taken notice, so he was furious when he received another message from his son a couple of weeks later informing him that he’d been inked.
However, Jonathan then sent his dad a photo of himself at the tattooists, proudly showing of his tattoo.
Just beneath his chest, written in Roman numerals, Jonathan had the date of his adoption permanently written on his body.
‘My fear that he was going to get something ridiculous, something he would regret, shifted and I could not be more proud of him,’ said Richard.
Jonathan himself posted the above photo to his social media with the following message: ‘So I got my first tattoo!! This date is the day that my life changed. This is the day my dads adopted me. The greatest day in my life knowing that for the rest of my life I would finally have a loving family that loved me for me!’
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