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Morticians Preserve Tattooed Skin Of Dead Loved Ones As Artwork

NORTHFIELD, Ohio (CBS Local) -- If you are looking for a new way to memorialize loved ones who have passed, you may want to contact a father/son duo of morticians in Ohio.

Michael Sherwood and his son Kyle have spent years developing a special process that preserves a person's skin and the tattoos on it after they die.

They say they came up with the idea over some drinks with friends. One friend had recently lost his father and told the pair he wanted his father's tattoo preserved.

They laughed it off at first, but the friend's persistence got them thinking.

"With the art in tattoos and how much they mean to people, why not keep them after they die?" Kyle said. "People put ashes in urns on mantles and visit stones with their loved one's names on them. Why not keep their tattoos as a memorial?"

Eventually, the Sherwoods launched Save My Ink Forever, a business that gives people the option to preserve their late loved one's tattoo as a piece of artwork. The operation is based in Northfield, Ohio, about 30 miles south of Cleveland.

The process takes three to four months, according to Kyle. The tattoo is surgically cut out of the body at the funeral home within 72 hours of the person passingand can be done before or after embalming is completed.

"Our process does not interfere with traditional viewing or cremation," he said.

Once done, the parchment of tattooed skin is framed as a wall piece for the family to mount on their wall in remembrance of their lost loved one.

"There is no maintenance, just treat it as you would fine art," Kyle said.

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