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You Can Now Get The Tattoos Of Your Dead Loved Ones Preserved

You Can Now Get The Tattoos Of Your Dead Loved Ones Preserved

A company in the US called Save My Ink Forever is offering up the unusual service

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Father and son pair are offering a unique service for grieving relatives, by offering to remove their late loved one's tattoos and popping them into a frame.

Morticians Michael and Kyle Sherwood, from Cleveland in the US, run Save My Ink Forever, a service which allows people to preserve tattoos after death.

Speaking to 9 News about how the unusual business came about, Kyle said: "One of my dad's friends told him he would like his tattoo preserved.

"Being the guys our friends come to with death-related questions, we kind of laughed about it at first."

Morticians Michael and Kyle Sherwood can preserve tattoos post-mortem.
Save My Ink Forever

However, the idea planted a seed in the minds of the duo and they began to think seriously about if it could be achieved - with Kyle asking 'why not keep their tattoos as a memorial?' Well, why indeed, eh?

So the guys set up Save My Ink Forever and US-based customers are able to keep the skin and tattoos of their departed loved one in a lovely frame that can be hung on the wall.

Explaining the process to the news outlet, Kyle said it can take 'roughly three to four months' from the person dying to having the finished article.

Bu the tattoo has to be removed within 72 hours of the person dying - with Kyle saying it can be done before or after embalming and that it doesn't interfere with 'traditional viewing or cremation'.

The morticians say they treat the body with the utmost respect and dignity and treat the jobs the same as they would any other funeral process.

Kyle says the whole process takes around three to four months.
Save My Ink Forever

Once complete the pieces require 'no maintenance' with Kyle saying people should just 'treat it as you would fine art'.

Perhaps naturally, not everyone who hears about the idea is on-board, but Kyle says they don't worry too much about people who think it's odd, because it's the families' wishes that are important, not the opinions of others.

Other people are a little too into the idea and Kyle says they've had some requests to turn the tattooed skin into lampshades and book covers.

But they refuse and offer to make a nice wall hanging instead, with Kyle explaining: "We are helping families and fulfilling their last wishes. We are not trying to create a freakshow."

To find out more about Save My Ink Forever, you can check out their website and some of their previous work here.

Featured Image Credit: Save My Ink Forever

Topics: US News