This Tattoo Artist Helped a Little Girl’s Dream Come True

Hope Laliberte is our kind of kid. While most other 8-year-olds would be fighting with each other over which Disney princess they get to dress up as, Hope finds herself more drawn to the villains. It’s her love of Cruella de Vil (from 101 Dalmatians) and Ursula (from The Little Mermaid) that brought her heartwarming story to our attention.

Hope has cerebral palsy and has to rely on leg braces in order to walk. Since the braces are with her at all times she has decorated them in a number of ways including with pictures of superheroes and skulls. When it came time to get a new set of braces Hope was intent on decorating them with her two favorite villains only to find out that such a design was not available. It is here that her mother, Pamela Laliberte-Lebeau, turned to a family friend for assistance—tattooist Aaron Guillemette.

Guillemette is the owner of Up In Flames in Fall River, Mass. and had known the family for years. Once he had an opportunity to use his art skills to help out Hope he jumped at the chance. Just like he would with a tattoo, Guillemette went over and over the designs to make sure that he was getting them absolutely perfect. Once he settled on a final design he drew the two baddies on sticker paper, painted them, then attached them to the bright pink braces Hope had picked out. Once in place they were covered in polyurethane so that they would last.

Once the new-and-improved braces were presented to Hope she screamed with joy. She will likely be the envy of all the kids in her class, not to mention a bunch of adults who share her affinity for the Disney villains.

“It’s amazing. It’s awesome,” Laliberte-Lebeau told The Herald News. “She deserves it. She’s had a tough road. This makes her very happy.”

If this story made you smile, and you know that it did, check out the story behind this man’s tattoo.