If you’ve got a weak stomach, you’re probably not going to want to hang around for this one, but, if you’re just as intrigued as I was, proceed. You’ve heard of keeping jewellery, ornaments, clothes and various other personal affects from a deceased loved one, how about keeping their skin?
To be specific, their tattooed skin. Yes, tattoos do hold sentimental value, but this is just freaky.
Michael Sherwood, a mortician in Cleveland, is offering families the chance to keep their loved one’s tattoo in a frame. Speaking to 9News Australia, Sherwood said, “People put ashes in urns on mantles and visit stones with their loved one’s names on them. Why not keep their tattoos as a memorial?”
Why not, indeed.
On the company website, Save My Ink Forever, there’s a little more information about this practice:
“When a loved one passes away, the family can visit our website to find a preferred provider in their area. If a funeral home/crematory is not listed, the family can request the funeral home/crematory to provide our services, at which point the funeral/crematory can contact us. We will work with any funeral home/crematory to provide your family with an everlasting memorial. The funeral home/crematory has 48-72 hours to contact us. NOTE: This does not mean the tattoo has to be removed within this time frame. We just need to be notified. We will then send a recovery kit that contains all of the essential paperwork and materials for the recovery process for your loved one’s tattoo(s). After the recovery process is completed, the family can expect to receive their loved one’s framed tattoo art within 3 months. Our framing artist will pair a frame to best suite the style of the tattoo, accompanied with museum quality UV glass. Pricing is based on the size of the tattoo.”
The concept began as a joke among friends, where a friend told Sherwood’s dad that he wanted his tattoo preserved after his death. But, they discussed it further to figure out that not only is it possible, but there were other people with this odd after-death desire.
