Celebrity3 min(s) read
Published 12:52 12 Dec 2021 GMT
Nick Cannon has honored his late son Zen with a new tattoo after the five-month-old's tragic death last week.
Cannon, 41, revealed the tragic news on the most recent episode of The Nick Cannon Show on Tuesday, December 7, which he dedicated to his "beautiful son Zen."
Revealing that his son - who is the youngest of his six children - sadly died after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Cannon honored Zen in a special way soon after.
Watch Nick Cannon open up about his special tribute to Zen:Cannon brought out a photo of the tattoo, which depicts his late son Zen as an angel, during an episode of his show on Friday, December 10.
"It was a lot of pain, but it was so well worth it," he said in a clip from the show that was also shared to Instagram.
Cannon said getting the tattoo took several hours between Thursday night and early Friday morning. The final image depicts Zen with wings, a halo, and a sash that has his name across it.
"This is a week where I've seen so much love. More love than I've probably ever experienced so even in the midst of a loss, I gotta say thank you to y'all," he told the audience before paying tribute to Zen.
"Last night, I got the opportunity to go get a tattoo of my son Zen as an angel on my rib," Cannon said, holding a framed photo of his completed tattoo.
"I'm still all bandaged up and it hurts right here right now… It was a lot of pain but it was so well worth it. I enjoyed every moment of the experience to forever have my son right here as my rib, right here on my side, as my angel."
Cannon then shared a video of himself getting the tattoo, featuring the moment he got emotional when first looking at the image of his son.
"I've seen so much love this week. I can't say THANK YOU enough. I will always have this angel with me. #NickCannonShow #PicOfTheDay," he captioned his Instagram post.
Cannon shared the five-month-old infant with model Alyssa Scott, who gave birth to Zen in June.
Revealing the devastating news last week, Cannon told the audience: "Over the weekend, I lost my youngest son to a condition called hydrocephalus that is pretty much a malignant, midline brain tumor — brain cancer."
Hydrocephalus occurs when there is an unusual increase in the amount of fluid in the brain. Cannon became tearful as he delved into the difficulty of his son's medical condition.
"I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out," he said. "He had this real interesting breathing, and by the time he was 2 months old I noticed... he had this nice-sized head, too. I called it a Cannon head," he said.
"We didn’t think anything about it. But I wanted to take him to the doctor for his sinus and breathing. We thought it would be routine," he added.
Cannon soon discovered that the reason Zen's head was bigger than that of many other babies was that the fluid accumulating in his brain had caused it to expand. When medics discovered the malignant tumor, Cannon's son underwent surgery to drain the fluid.
Unfortunately, Zen's health continued to decline and became particularly severe around Thanksgiving.
"The process sped up. Ultimately, it was cancer in the brain. The tumor began to grow a lot faster," Cannon said.
