Memorial Tattooing

“There will always be a need to remember those who have passed…Modes of expression change, forms of remembrance change,

But the need to remember does not.”  Kenneth LaFave, Composer 

The Funeral ceremony is a culturally universal custom as old as father time himself. As long as people have died there has always been a need for memorializing the dead.

For example, Burial and death masks have had an important role in many societies. The ancient Egyptians put a personalized mask over the face of their mummies or the mask was to become part of the sarcophagus. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, in an annual mourning ceremony held in New Ireland, an island near Australia, dancers wear masks that memorialize specific dead persons. In Western countries, death masks are sometimes used to preserve the features of the dead. A plaster cast is made of the face and plaster likenesses are made from these molds, memorializing the facial characteristics of those who have died. Some famous death masks include those of Ludwig Van Beethoven and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Throughout our lives we develop relationships and the dynamic experiences within those relationships each leave indelible marks on our lives. When someone we love passes away it only seems fitting to leave an indelible mark on our skin, a tattoo, permanently memorializing our loved one on our own bodies.

 Tattooing has existed as long as there has been skin to tattoo. In the Bronze Age, tattoos were probably used for therapeutic reasons. Tattooing in Polynesia, before the arrival of Europeans in the South Pacific, had evolved over thousands of years and was the most artistic tattooing of the ancient world. More recently, in today’s society, people of all ages, races, and cultures are getting tattooed.

One of the most popular reasons that people get tattooed is to memorialize someone who has died. It seems that the angel on your shoulder, or the praying hands over your heart, or the cross on the inside of your forearm is a permanent way to reaffirm and memorialize someone we care about.

Tattooing allows individuals to express the meaning and quality of a relationship in a very unique, personal, and artistic way. The tattoo, in essence, can tell a story, the way that a meaningful funeral experience also tells the story of a life once lived and legacy left behind. The visitation and the funeral ceremony afford us time to openly express our grief and acknowledge the accomplishments and memories that our loved ones have left us. Our body, more specifically our skin, has become a vast canvas that, through the art of tattooing, also acknowledges the fondest of memories and legacies left when life is complete.

Although tattooing is not for everyone tattoos no longer belong to the riff-raff, bikers or drunken sailors. Tattooing has become a mainstream art form in which every emotion can easily be inked into our skin, even memorializing our dead.

#crerancelebration #heartfelt