preserving a deceased loved one's tattoo is insane

[IrishGal21]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48047002

would you do this and put it on your mantlepiece? Seems to me very morbid and grim

I thought I had seen everything...surely a photo of the tattoo would be enough....I am not anti-tattoo at all but this just seems very bizarre

I don't like it. But I won't judge someone else who does it. Grief is hard. Confronting your own mortality is hard. If this helps people get through then so be it.

🤮

My best friend has a tattoo, which symbolises her fight with mental health and in a really tiny part is my name.

TBH I would consider it, just messaged her this link and she is well up for it

I wouldn't put it on my mantlepiece, or probably anywhere that everyone could see it but I could imagine it being very comforting.

I quite like the idea.

I read about this quite a while ago. I think it's horrendously expensive though.

I actually think it’s pretty cool!
The big one where you can see the shape of his body is rather extreme, but a small framed piece of your loved ones tattoo? No worse than the ashes made into a ring, or even tattoos done with a loved ones ashes mixed with the ink... I’d consider it!

The photo made me feel a bit faint. I would never do that or have it in my home. A photo of it, yes.

It's horrible, it just reminds me of Ed Gene and the human skin lamps he made.

Just get an artwork of the tattoo.

Also how do you move on when you have part of your husbands corps on the wall.

Photos yes but the actual skin, no, I find that quite disturbing tbh.

The only tattoo that I've seen preserved has been from a concentration camp survivor who didn't want their camp number on their body anymore but wanted it preserved as a historical record.

As far as this guy's tattoos are concerned, well it's a a bit creepy and a lot macabre. If he loved his tattoos that much wouldn't he want to be buried with them? Because people's tattoos are never nearly as interesting to other people as they are to themselves.

The format is startling, I'll admit, but the concept no different in essence from preserving any aspect of the deceased's life. I still keep as precious post-it notes my DH wrote, the hair caught in the electrodes the paramedics tore off when he was taken away.

I'm on the fence,which is a rarity.
I have my son's ashes in a casket in my room which I look at everyday.
Would I want to look at his skin every day?
I don't think I could bear it. But I wouldn't judge others.
Grief is so personal and unique to each of us.

I’d end up with more of DH on the wall than there would be in the ground 😂 bless him

I come from a religious background where people view burying the dead with the same level of disgust as OP does for preserving the tattoos. Honestly I think it’s great that his wife loved him enough to do this for him as his last request. Who are we to judge something like this?

It wouldn't be for me as I find it rather distasteful but it's not my place to say what other people do when they are grieving. It's won't hurt anybody.

If it comforts, and it’s done with the prior blessing of the deceased.I don’t see the issue.

People wear clothes, and sit on sofas made from animal skin, after all.

Roald Dahl wrote a short story called skin which is about this.....

No, that goes too far for me.

A reproduction of the tattoo in a print, yes. Preserved human skin on display, no.

Personally, I would have a photographer take artistic shots of tattoos to frame. But, it’s what he wanted, it comforts his wife, I can’t judge that.

No, but then tattoos per se leave me cold so into the ground with its owner it can go.

Maybe you should let people grieve how they want to and try not to be so judgemental.

It’s such a personal thing that as much as I personally have no view of tattoos in real life - it’ll be hard for me to judge someone who wanted to preserve a part of their lives - however they wish to do it.

The Toraja people of Sulawesi unearth their deceased family once a year to clean them, talk to them etc. Some keep their dead for years even after they die because they are not ready to let go. Is that morbid and grim as well OP? To you yes, to them. It’s life.

Consider yourself lucky that you’re in a position to lightly scoff at someone else’s interpretation of grief.

I paid enough for the things, fabulous that someone can do something with them

In all seriousness though, why not?

My husband is covered in tattoos and has spent probably about £4K on them so far. He definitely considers them works of art. I’m not sure I’d want them on the wall (!) but it does seem rather sad that at some point they’ll “go” with him. I think good photos are the way to go, capturing the person in their prime enjoying the tattoos themselves.

I dont think it's insane, probably not for me (DH doesn't have tattoos anyway), but as others have said, if its helping her grieve then who are we to judge.