Mementos can soothe the grieving process and provide comfort in times of heavy absence. A Cleveland-based company called Save My Ink Forever goes the extra mile in offering its customers the chance to preserve their tattoos after their death. Even after the body gets buried or cremated, loved ones can still treasure the body art.
Michael Sherwood, a third-generation mortician, and his son Kyle Sherwoods launched the business after an idea that spurred up during a round of drinks. Guy’s night turned out to be a productive brainstorming session as one of their friends questioned them about the procedure to preserve their tattoo after their death. Initially, they laughed off the question but it got their brains spinning with ideas on how to transform this bizarre idea into a profitable business venture.
Honoring the drunk man’s wishes, they found a way. After strategizing a technique for removing and preserving tattoos, the father-son duo founded Save My Ink Forever and started accepting orders.
“We are trying to do this in the most dignified manner possible. To people, some of these things really are pieces of art,” Kyle said. “It gives that family another option and instead of having just the remains or the burial, we can still do that, they have actually a piece of their loved one. They are pieces of art and it is just amazing the tattoos we get.”
Save My Ink Forever markets itself as the first company in the world to introduce an effective tattoo preservation process. They will not disclose their secrets but they do vaguely explain that the entire process takes three to four months. Once the procedure is complete, clients are left with a parchment-like artwork that requires no maintenance.
The business has built partnerships with funeral homes in other states to scale the business. They ship custom kits and video tutorials on how to remove the tattoos. The strips of skin are then sent back to Cleveland for the preservation process.
After all this effort, one can only hope that the tattoo is actually worth keeping forever.