Griff Riley gets scar tattooed on his head to match his son Zavier

As if watching their baby boy undergo delicate skull surgery wasn’t hard enough – Griff Riley and Billiarna MacDonald were then forced to endure their son Zavier struggle with the zigzag scar that snaked his head. But then Mr Riley had an idea.

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Griff Riley has an angry, red mark that zigzags across his shaved head – but it’s not a scar, it’s a special tattoo so he looks like his three-year-old son Zavier.

“I thought I’d do it for him just so he doesn’t feel left out or different … I have the same thing,” Mr Riley told The Sunday Telegraph.

“He loves it, he says: ‘Same as Daddy’ and he kisses mine better.”

And so the “scar” stands out, Mr Riley shaves his head as well.

“I could have a full head of hair but now I shave. I’ve never had a shaved head before but I do it for my son,” he said.

Griff Riley who got a tattoo across his head to match son Zavier’s scar. Picture. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

It is an extraordinary act of sacrifice and love – but no less extraordinary than his son’s story.

His son Zavier was born with craniosynostosis, a condition where the bones in his skull were fused together before the brain is fully formed.

The condition forces the growing brain to push forward or backwards and makes the skull look like a bullet.

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In Zavier’s case his skull was growing out above his eye sockets.

“We didn’t notice at first but he had a ridge on his forehead,” Mr Riley, 29, said.

“My parents said we should get it looked at and when he was six months we were sent to a paediatrician.

“(By then) his head was like a snapper fish, with a big sort of lump at the front.”

The only way to accommodate the growing brain is radical surgery to reshape the skull, a daunting prospect for anyone let alone an 18-month-old child, which was Zavier’s age when the procedure was performed.

“You know the whole time he went through that operation he didn’t once cry, he went along as if it was nothing,” Mr Riley said.

Zavier was born with craniosynostosis, a condition where the bones in his skull were fused together before the brain is fully formed.

Zavier aged 18-months with his mum Billiarna Macdonald following his surgery.

But it was far from nothing.

“The plates in the front of his head were fused, so his brain was growing outwards,” Zavier’s mother Billiarna MacDonald said

“He had to be cut from ear to ear, side to side, they pulled his skin down to his nose and cut the bone from the eye socket up and replaced it with screws and plates.”

The day before the surgery at Sydney Children’s Hospital craniofacial unit, Mr Riley shaved his head in solidarity.

”Zavier had to have his head shaved, so Griff shaved his as well so Zavier didn’t have to be bald on his own. It really touches my heart,” Ms MacDonald said.

The procedure Zavier Riley underwent to create more room for his brain to grow.

Zavier’s distinct zigzag scar.

And his dad Griff’s matching tattooed one.

As Zavier recovered with a now normal-shaped head, he grew old enough to recognise the scar. So his dad went one step further and got the strange tattoo.

“I think it’s just amazing,” Ms MacDonald said.

“I cried when I first saw the tattoo. Zavier loves it, he said: ‘Daddy has the same scar as me’.”

Zavier is now fully recovered and can look forward to a normal life, while his hair has grown back.

But Mr Riley said he’ll keep his head shaved indefinitely

“His hair does cover most of his scar, but I’ll keep mine shaved for him,” he said.

Originally published as Griff Riley gets scar tattooed on his head to match his son Zavier