Maybe sixty decades ago I saw a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” item about some massively tattoo-ed guy whose skin was removed, preserved somehow, and displayed in a ‘travelling museum” (aka circus side show?) for spectators to view. I don’t think it gave any real details but if so, I don’t remember them.
It made me wonder, though, given the present day popularity of tattooing. Would any of you want to preserve your tattoos? As in, not just a photo of you in life with the tattoo showing, but the actual skin of your body, some section featuring a particular image you’re proud of or even the entire body suit if you’ve gone way past the sleeve stage?
Does the idea of some future people gawking at your fabulous back dragon please or amuse you?
What if it was a private family thing? Is the idea of your greatX3Grandchild looking at the wall plaque and saying, yep, that’s a piece from great-great-grandpappy’s bicep. He got that to comemorate winning the 1987 World PacMan Tournamen” please you? Would it make you feel like your memory is being honored in some way?
Sort of related: After my father died, one of my mother’s friends who was into that sort of thing collected the family’s floral display from his coffin, and dried some of the flowers/leaves, and make an “artistic” display of them in a sealed glass frame and gave it to my mother as a ‘memento.’ My mother’s reaction was … mixed. She never hung it up, but she kept it sitting in a closet. I always though it was just flat out strange, and gave the emptied out frame to Morgan Memorial when I was clearing her possessions. (The crumbling bits of leaves and such just went into the trash.)
Ugh. I have a tattoo on each upper arm. And they are personal, and usually hidden by short sleeve shirts anyway. They aren’t special enough to be preserved and I doubt anyone would care.
Absolutely zero interest or need to preserve them. They’re tattoos, not some priceless work of art.
I don’t give a rat’s about whatever anybody chooses to do with my cadaver or any part thereof once I die, as long as it’s environmentally sustainable and not done with intent to offend anyone. I will not take any measures to have my tattoo documented or otherwise preserved, but if anybody wants it when I’m done with it they can have it.