⁠“You can see his hair, his wrinkles”: TikToker frames late husband’s preserved tattooed skin as a keepsake

A TikToker is going viral for framing her late husband's tattooed skin as a keepsake.

E! News has reported that Angelica shared a video on TikTok on July 23, where she could be seen holding her late husband's preserved skin in a glass frame. His tattoos were visible, which included a skull imbued with the hues of the Pittsburgh Steelers' logo and colors.

"My husband was the biggest Steelers fan. How big? We preserved his real tattoo-his actual skin," she captioned the video. "This isn’t a replica. You can see his hair, his wrinkles, the ink I kissed goodnight."

Angelica claimed that her son was the one who chose to preserve this chunk out of over 70 tattoos he had because "this is the one Dad would want."

Everything we know about TikToker Angelica's decision to preserve her late husband's remains

Us Weekly has reported that the TikTok creator tagged Save My Ink Forever in her video, crediting them for being “the only company in the world that can do this.” She has since shared a follow-up video as well.

"Yeah, we really had my husband’s tattoo preserved. And no, my son and I don't think it's weird at all," she said in the video. “Let me tell you how we had it done. When my husband passed away unexpectedly, I knew that this is something we were going to do because we had talked about it. So with this consent, when I was at the funeral home making all the arrangements - for those of you unfortunately who have gone through this process, it’s everything from how you want the chairs to what kind of flowers do you want, all of that stuff, right? And I said, ‘I want to preserve my husband’s tattoo.’ Naturally, they thought I was crazy. They were very nice, but it was very unheard-of. They were not familiar with it. They weren’t sure how we were going to do that.”

After speaking with the funeral director about her idea, Angelica got in touch with Save My Ink Forever, which then began collaborating with the funeral home. The moritician then reportedly extracted “the tissue” that has since been framed.

“My husband passed away on a Friday,” she recalled. “His showing was the following Thursday and the funeral was Friday. On Friday, after everybody left and I was doing my goodbyes,” she met with the mortician and outlined “the exact tattoo I wanted.”

She revealed that the preservation process took about 3 months before it was shipped out to her in West Virginia, as the company is in Ohio.

"When they showed us his tattoo, it was undescribable as to what that felt. It wasn’t just one feeling. It wasn’t just an emotion. It was physical. It’s in a frame, you don’t touch it. But it filled a void that was so big," she said.

She also said on TikTok she could not fathom not being able to preserve the father of her son in this way.

“I have many, many emotions every day,” she said. “Every second. And this helps me in ways that I didn’t know that I needed.” She continued, “These are all happy tears, but please, please help people know that this is available.”

She also doubled down on her sentiments in the caption of her original video.

"The feeling of finally having him home with us is overwhelming! Words can’t describe what having my husband’s tattoo as a work of art means to us❤️," she wrote. "Even though we've had his ashes, it didn't give us the true feeling of him. How does 250 lbs, muscles, and tattoos accumulate to a box… it doesn't. Having a piece of him that I can see, feel, and love is what we needed more than anything."

In her last video, the TikTok creator also called on her 94,000 followers to "please help people know" that tattoo preservation is "available" to help "honor" their departed.

"I can go into many more details about this. You tell me what you need to know. Have you had this done? What special ways did you honor your loved ones?" the Tiktoker said. "I didn't just do the skin, tattoo preservation, and people thought I was crazy. I was judged for so many other things, and I will share those, and I will also share what we've gathered in throughout this whole journey on TikTok and the special, the most beautiful ways that people have honored their loved ones."

She went on:

"Start planning now. Start treating this like you want to be in control of everything -- from what music is going to be played. What picture are they going to use? What clothes are you going to wear? What color are your nails going to be? Everything. I can't tell you what this journey so far has been for me, for my son, for our family, for our friends. What I can tell you is that I promised to show up on here. This is a space where tell me about your loved one and know that you are heard, you are seen, you are felt, and I will never judge," the TikTok creator concluded. "I hope to see and get to know all of you, and just know that I'm here for you."

As of this writing, further details about the family remain unclear.

Stay tuned to SoapCentral for more.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback