When we experience the death of somebody close to us, it can affect us in ways that surprise even us.
We expect to be saddened and to want to find a way to keep them in our hearts, but there’s often a time when we lose a sense of what we’re supposed to do with ourselves. Sometimes, our own lives can feel like they’ve stopped as if we’re waiting for something.
So when we suddenly become inspired and find a way to honor them, that becomes important not only for the obvious reasons, but as a means of rescuing ourselves from our funk.
And one such quest ended up leading to an entire business idea.
Morticians Michael and Kyle Sherwood are a father/son duo who operate out of Northfield, Ohio.
As Kyle told Australia’s 9 News, they didn’t start taking their unique approach to their work until one of Michael’s friends said he wanted his tattoos preserved after his death.
The pair laughed about the idea at first, but the man made it clear that he was serious.
This lead Kyle to think about such a proposal and the more he pondered it, the less crazy it sounded.
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As he said, “With the art in tattoos and how much they mean to people, why not keep them after they die?”
Since they had the skills to make that happen, they started a business called Save My Ink Forever.
When a family states their intent to preserve a person’s tattoo, the Sherwoods extract the skin around it within 72 hours of the death and spend three to four months preserving it into a piece of parchment-like artwork.
As Kyle said, “Our process does not interfere with traditional viewing or cremation.”
They assure customers that they treat the tattooed skin with the same dignity as they would a full body and provide regular progress updates.
They also will not work on face or genital tattoos and have a policy against making that skin into anything but a wall-mounted piece of artwork. They’ve had to refuse requests to make lampshades and book covers out of this skin.
Despite this diligence, the Sherwoods have received criticism from some conservative members of their community, some of whom compared them to notorious serial killer Ed Gein.
To this, Kyle said, “It’s the family we care about – who am I to say how they should remember their loved one?”
h/t: 9 News
