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SALT LAKE CITY — A father of identical twins is contemplating getting one of them a tattoo to distinguish him from his brother, and the results could be extremely helpful.
Reddit user Thrwydad wrote on the website that he and his wife can't tell their 1-year-old sons, Aaron and Adam, apart, and baby Aaron has serious health issues that require him to take medicine every four hours. Without the medication, "it leads to significant consequences," Thrwydad wrote.
He and his wife have drawn on Adam's arm in permanent marker, but the marker washed off in the bath. After it rubbed off, their grandma accidentally gave Adam the medication and Adam got very sick while Aaron went to the hospital for a week, according to Reddit.
"This is a serious extreme situation, and I don't want to take this risk again," Thrwydad wrote. "We have had other mix ups with the boys, but it has never wound up this bad." The parents have used nail polish, jewelry, different colored clothes and even shaved one of their heads to differentiate the boys, but nothing worked as well as the permanent marker.
"We are after a more permanent solution," Thrwydad said. "I read online about someone tattooing a single dot on one of their twins and also about piercing ears. I really hate to say it, but we are here. I need to do something permanent. I could have lost both my sons last weekend, and I'm desperate."
Other Reddit users suggested using henna or agreed that a piercing could do the trick. Some were supportive of the idea of a tattoo.
"I'm for the small freckle tattoo," Reddit user MRSAurus wrote. "I'm an identical twin and my parents told us apart because I happened to have a birthmark my sister didn't. When you're a twin you grasp onto the few things that make you different, and I think your sons would be OK with it. I mean, even as like an 8-year-old if someone would call me the wrong name I'd go, 'No silly, I'm MRSA!' and point to my birthmark."
