Dad gets massive back tattoo in tribute to his kids and baby loss journey

By Kate Pounds via SWNS

A doting dad has a full back tattoo tribute to his children - including a son who sadly died at just four weeks.

David Bennett, 56, had the massive design inked to show his love for his family and document his baby loss journey with wife Katherine, 44.

The pair share five children: twins Josh and Stephanie, 16, Cameron, 14, Hannah 12, and Alex, five.

David, a fuel merchant, also has two more kids from a previous relationship - Kayleigh, 33, and Daniel, 30.

But, sadly, David and Katherine have also lost kids along the way - William, who passed away at four weeks old, and four children who died before birth.

His huge color tattoo shows his seven children looking at William in the sky - who is surrounded by four stars in tribute to the unborn babies.

Katherine, a homemaker, said the tattoo - which took more than two years to complete - was a special gift on David's 50th birthday.

She said: "We're all about family, it's so important to us, so he has everything he wants, I couldn't think what to get him.

"But he has talked a lot about having a tattoo so we decided to go for a really special one as it's such an important birthday."

David and Katherine met in a pub in their hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 2003 and married two years later.

He had had a vasectomy 17 years before so the pair paid £3,000 ($3,681) for a reversal - and a fortune teller told him he would have more kids but couldn't say how many.

Dismayed, Katherine lost heart when a doctor told the couple they might not be able to have biological children because the team were only able to reconnect one of David's tubes.

But she was happily pregnant with twins just two months after they tied the knot.

Josh and Stephanie were then born after in April 2006.

The couple were overjoyed - and surprised to be pregnant with Cameron just a year later.

And they then thought they had completed their family then Hannah arrived in 2009.

But, seven years later, Alex arrived - giving them a brood of five.

Sadly, the couple have also suffered heartbreaking loss.

They became pregnant in 2012 but, tragically, that baby's heart stopped beating in the womb.

The devastated parents also lost twins during pregnancy six months later, and another pregnancy ended after a couple of months.

Katherine was then too scared to go for a check-up when she first became pregnant in 2014, but all looked well when she plucked up the courage for the 20-week scan.

But, at 32 weeks the baby had a hole in the heart, thickening of the neck, and something called double bubble, where his stomach wasn't connected to his bowel.

He was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome after tests at 35 weeks.

Eventually, William was born, but he was never able to come home from hospital and died in Katherine's arms at 27 days old in November 2015.

Now, the couple say their family is complete - and David has had the snip again.

Katherine said of their journey: "I couldn't believe it when we found out about the twins, I was so shocked and absolutely over the moon.

"I didn't think it would happen naturally and we'd started saving for IVF.

"Then we kept thinking we wouldn't have anymore and it wouldn't be possible and suddenly I'd miss a period.

"Losing the first one was awful, even though I already had so many it made me realize I desperately wanted another, it's crazy.

"Then it just got harder and harder with each loss.

"I was so frightened of losing the baby when I got pregnant with William, and when I heard he had Downs - I cried and cried.

"I realize it was silly of me, but I didn't know anything about it.

"Then people with children with downs reached out to me and I realized it didn't matter, this was my baby and I wanted him.

"He was beautiful and he totally changed the way I look at the world.

"It was so hard, so painful, he was sedated all the time and so full of tubes I only got to hold him 10 times.

"I'll always feel an emptiness because of his loss.

"I can't describe the relief when Alex was born, it was out of this world."