By: Jake Edmiston
At that point, this was a practice that only tattoo artists used amongst themselves, Ms. Rodgers says. But since that evening in 2008, it has garnered attention of sociologists across the world and Canadian tattoo parlours are seeing requests for the procedure grow. But it remains largely underground, says Ms. Rodgers, and many artists refuse to offer it to the public, citing the “unknown risks.”
“Ashes are essentially carbon and carbon is the main ingredient in black ink,” said Ms. Rodgers, an artist and manager at the Body of Art tattoo parlour in Toronto. After five years, her cousin has seen no adverse effects from the procedure — dubbed “Morbid Ink” by one American academic — but the tattoo artist says she would still turn away any customers who came into her tattoo shop with an urn.
“It was something intimate and private between family members that were willing to take the risk, if there were any,” she said of her cousin’s tattoo, a rose in remembrance of her mother, Rose.
On Tuesday, Ms. Rodgers had her cat’s cremated ashes used to create the tattoo of a paw print on her leg.
“To me, it’s not weird,” she said. “It’s something that’s been around the tattoo industry for a long time.”
But Health Canada warns that the “introduction of an unknown or unsterile material into the ink may cause injury to the user.”
“As a result of the composition of the ashes being unknown and the
potential for adverse reactions, Health Canada does not recommend this
type of tattooing practice,” a spokesperson from the regulator’s cosmetics wing said in an e-mailed statement.
York University sociologist Deborah Davidson says the practice is an extreme example of a trend among bereaved Canadians. The professor is currently amassing a database of hundreds of memorial tattoos commemorating the dead — though without the ones with actual remains in the ink. It’s a tradition that dates back to Polynesians, according to Professor John Troyer, with the Centre for Death and Society at the U.K’s Bath University.
Ms. Davidson has marked a spike in public mourning as of late, with online posts about the dead and roadside memorials for crash victims growing in popularity. But studies on the trends, particularly memorial tattoos, are sparse — a void Ms. Davidson is looking to fill with a digital archive to include 500 photos and stories of commemorative tattoos.
We know that tattooing is on the rise and we know that various types of memorializing is on the rise,” she said.
In one of the archived cases in the York database, a respondent reported that she chose to place a cherry blossom tattoo on her forearm, wrist and hand because her brother’s hands were the last part of his body she saw before the casket closed.
“We live in a culture now where death is sanitized,” Ms. Davidson said, adding that “sanitization” began when death became the province of hospitals and funeral homes in the early 20th century.
“[Death] is in the closet and we kind of take it out of the closet for the funeral and that’s it … But tattoos reopen that dialogue.”
While memorial tattoos are a familiar request among tattoo-parlour clientele, requests for tattoos with cremated ashes are only just starting to become commonplace, according to a 20-year veteran artist in Vancouver who has performed over a dozen “Morbid Ink” tattoos.
“I probably get 10 requests a year,” said Mike Nassar of the Fall Tattoo parlour, who says he has no issues with the practice.
Professor Troyer, has been monitoring the trend for at least six years, and says he has since seen cremated remains pressed into diamonds or vinyl records of the mourners’ choosing.
“The air we’re breathing right now has the particles of dead people in it,” he said. “When a person talks about putting some cremated remains in tattoo ink, it’s a pinch. You’re not dumping the urn in the ink.” But most artists who spoke with this reporter said the practice was just “too weird.”
“That’s something that’s going to take the tattoo business back underground after so many years trying to make it acceptable,” said Darin Comley, an artist at Universal Tattoo in Ottawa. “We’re not doctors, we shouldn’t be doing something like that. I couldn’t fathom having someone else under my skin.”
Source:http://news.nationalpost.com/news/leaving-a-mark-how-ash-tattoos-help-the-living-remember-the-dead
York University sociologist Deborah Davidson says the practice is an extreme example of a trend among bereaved Canadians. The professor is currently amassing a database of hundreds of memorial tattoos commemorating the dead — though without the ones with actual remains in the ink. It’s a tradition that dates back to Polynesians, according to Professor John Troyer, with the Centre for Death and Society at the U.K’s Bath University.
Ms. Davidson has marked a spike in public mourning as of late, with online posts about the dead and roadside memorials for crash victims growing in popularity. But studies on the trends, particularly memorial tattoos, are sparse — a void Ms. Davidson is looking to fill with a digital archive to include 500 photos and stories of commemorative tattoos.
We know that tattooing is on the rise and we know that various types of memorializing is on the rise,” she said.
In one of the archived cases in the York database, a respondent reported that she chose to place a cherry blossom tattoo on her forearm, wrist and hand because her brother’s hands were the last part of his body she saw before the casket closed.
“We live in a culture now where death is sanitized,” Ms. Davidson said, adding that “sanitization” began when death became the province of hospitals and funeral homes in the early 20th century.
“[Death] is in the closet and we kind of take it out of the closet for the funeral and that’s it … But tattoos reopen that dialogue.”
While memorial tattoos are a familiar request among tattoo-parlour clientele, requests for tattoos with cremated ashes are only just starting to become commonplace, according to a 20-year veteran artist in Vancouver who has performed over a dozen “Morbid Ink” tattoos.
“I probably get 10 requests a year,” said Mike Nassar of the Fall Tattoo parlour, who says he has no issues with the practice.
Peter J. Thompson/National PostTattoo
artist Trish Rodgers looks down to a freshly made tattoo of her late
cat "Thunder's" paw which was made with the cats ashes mixed with tattoo
ink, at Toronto's Body of Art tattoo shop, Tuesday October 22, 2013.
Some years ago "Thunder" woke Rodgers one evening as she slept by
uncharacteristically biting her leg and then running and jumping into
her infant baby boys crib to draw Rodgers to the choking baby. The baby
was saved.
Professor Troyer, has been monitoring the trend for at least six years, and says he has since seen cremated remains pressed into diamonds or vinyl records of the mourners’ choosing.
“The air we’re breathing right now has the particles of dead people in it,” he said. “When a person talks about putting some cremated remains in tattoo ink, it’s a pinch. You’re not dumping the urn in the ink.” But most artists who spoke with this reporter said the practice was just “too weird.”
“That’s something that’s going to take the tattoo business back underground after so many years trying to make it acceptable,” said Darin Comley, an artist at Universal Tattoo in Ottawa. “We’re not doctors, we shouldn’t be doing something like that. I couldn’t fathom having someone else under my skin.”
Source:http://news.nationalpost.com/news/leaving-a-mark-how-ash-tattoos-help-the-living-remember-the-dead
No comments:
Post a Comment