DEAD TATTOO ARTIST WILL HAVE SKIN REMOVED, PRESERVED
A Saskatoon man’s body tattoos are going to be preserved and framed. Chris Wenzel, who worked as a tattoo artist, died in his sleep on October 29. He was 41. “He knew he was going to go,” his wife Cheryl said. But before that, Wenzel discovered Save My Ink Forever: an American company that preserves and frames the tattoos of the deceased. (* Aw, man, they have to be deceased?!) In a process that takes about three months, one’s skin is surgically “excised” before a special formula is used to conserve it. With nearly all of Wenzel’s body covered in ink, Cheryl believes that this will be the largest tattoo preservation ever to be done in North America. She says, “You wouldn’t burn or bury a Picasso and that’s what some of these pieces are.” Wenzel’s preserved tattoos will be unveiled at an expo this spring.
* You guys ever heard of this thing called a camera?
* Wait a minute – how did he do his own tattoos on his back?
* They frame the tattoos? No, they should make a body cast mold of his dead body, then glue the tattooed skin onto the fake body right where it used to be. I mean, if you’re going to be creepy about it, go all the way.
* Just tell me this company wasn’t founded by old Nazis who used to make lampshades out of skin.
CLIP: Here’s a description of the process from the president of the tattoo preservaton company. (“It rubs the lotion on its skin…” from Silence of the Lambs.)
