A view of the cochlear implant
A view of the cochlear implant to be surgically placed on 6-year-old deaf, dumb child, Dan Villablanca Vega, at the Naval Hospital in Vina del Mar, 112 kms west of Santiago, December 4, 2004. Dan is one of 30 deaf children that have benefited from the Chilean Navy's program that offers the possibility of hearing for the first time through the latest technology in cochlear implants. The treatment, which includes screening candidates, the operation to place the implant and guidance during the process of learning to speak and recognize sounds, is performed by the Navy at a cost to the family of just the implant, imported from Austria, and surgical supplies. Picture taken December 4, 2004. Reuters

A dad in New Zealand got inked for the first time with a cochlear implant tattoo to "bond" with his daughter.

The photo of dad Alistair Campbell's tattoo is going viral over the internet, reports The Mirror. His daughter, Charlotte Campbell, was fitted with a cochlear implant device when she was four years old. Now, at six , Charlotte has been fitted with another device to facilitate hearing in her right ear.

The Telegraph reports that Campbell got inked just before Charlotte's surgery for the second device. The cochlear implant tattoo is strategically placed on the left-side of Campbell's head, just behind his ear. In an interview, the dad said he wanted to pay tribute to his daughter. It was not for himself or aesthetics.

"We have a close father-daughter bond, and I thought it would be quite fitting for me to do that," he said. "As she grows older, she'll understand the love behind it."

A cochlear implant is an electronic device which is implanted as a part of the hearing loss treatment. The device, when attached to the ear of the patient, stimulates the nerves of the inner ear to produce a sense of sound so that the person is able to hear. As of 2012, it is estimated that almost 324,000 people in the world have received cochlear implants.

In a similar case reported by The Mirror, the parents of a baby girl called Honey-Rae decided to get a birthmark tattoo on their legs, similar to her daughter's natural birthmark.

Apart from being a mere fashion statement, tattoos are now being used by artists for spcecific purposes. Some tattoos are painted on surgery scars.

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