PARENTS Jon and Leslye Pierce-Russell have had matching tattoos done to honour their son and other like him who have Down’s Syndrome.

The Lucky Few tattoo – three chevrons representing the three copies of the 21st chromosome that babies with Down’s are born with – has become a global phenomenon in the last few months.

Their boy Sam, 26, has thrived. In fact he was one of the first children with the condition in Swindon to go to a mainstream school.

And it was when she was researching on the internet that Leslye discovered the tattoo devised by a fellow mum in Australia. Mica May was at a retreat with other mothers when the idea of getting matching inks arose.

After she posted it on Instagram the idea when viral and now parents of Down’s children all over the world are wearing the same symbol on their skin.

Leslye said: “I’ve got a couple of tattoos. I had a beautiful one done for Sam last year. But this one really signifies the meaning behind it. When I saw it I thought: ‘You know what? I want that done!’” she said. “When I told Jon he said we’d have it done together.”

One of the founder members of Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group more than 20 years ago, she explained she wanted people to ask what it meant and she would be able to tell them about the Lucky Few. It is the title of a book chronicling the experience of a mother of two children with the condition who decided that what others saw as misfortune was really pure luck.

“We have got a kid with Down’s and we are always aiming forward,” said Leslye. “Everyone who meets him falls in love with him. He is just a good person to be around.” But she added Sam himself hadn’t realised the importance of the strange pattern on his parents’ arms of the fact that they wanted to celebrate him. “To him it is just some drawing on my arm. I had to tell him it was for him.”

Down’s Syndrome is caused by an extra chromosome and affects one in 1,000 babies.There are around 40,000 people with the condition in the UK.