You Can Get Your Tattoos Framed As Artwork After You Die

Getting a tattoo is a commitment. Having something permanently etched into your skin is not a decision you take lightly (drunkenly, maybe, but never lightly), and everything from an intricate original design to Britney Spears during her public breakdown takes on a certain amount of significance over time. It’s a shame to let something so personal disappear in the ground with you, so a company called the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art (NAPSA) has created Save My Ink to ensure your entire art collection can be passed on.

And why wouldn’t you want it to be? According to a story in The Daily Mail, NAPSA founder and chairman Charles Hamm estimates he’s spent roughly $45,000 on his own personal body art — so it’s no wonder he devised a way to keep all of that expensive artwork from ending up cremated or buried. NAPSA employs a process whereby the water and fat found naturally in skin is replaced with a polymer that makes it more durable and suitable for framing:

After they die, relatives have 18 hours to inform Save My Ink, who post a removal kit with instructions and prepaid return packaging to the funeral home.
The tattoo is removed within 60 hours by the embalmer and sent back to Save My Ink, who return the art to the family within three to six months.

Even though the membership program is currently not available (statement on their site: “While tattoo preservation is no longer available through the membership program, NAPSA is exploring providing preservation services directly through funeral homes”), it shouldn’t derail this type of memorialization, since about one in five adults in the United States has one or more tattoos.

It’s also not difficult to find other skin-saving services, like Walls And Skin, which claims to remove tattoos for artistic purposes and “can also be given to the relatives as a free-loan.” So if you really want to leave a piece of yourself behind forever, and you’re a rebel who plays by your own set of rules, there will always be options.