Bruce Tricklebank’s painted face moko is his way of telling the world he has prostate cancer and raising awareness of the killer disease.
Mr Tricklebank, 63, an intelligence support officer with Hamilton police, said he wanted to do more than paint his face or wear blue on Blue Friday, the day set aside to lift the awareness of prostate cancer.
“I decided that instead of just painting my face blue I would do something a bit bolder and so I got renowned Raglan Te Moko artist, Simon Te Wheoro, to do a moko design on my face,” he said.
He said about 600 men in New Zealand died every year from prostate cancer and he was happy to have the moko painted on his face as a way of raising public awareness about the killer disease.
He said the moko took about 45 minutes and he said it was worth it if it encouraged just one man to talk to his doctors about prostate cancer.
Media Release Friday, 3 September, 2010