Widow Skins Husband And Hangs His Tattoos On The Wall To Fulfill Final Wish

Losing a loved one is the hardest thing for anyone to go through, and when you know it is coming it can be even harder to prepare for.

One family have gone further than most in their efforts to keep their loved one close after they tragically died.

The wife of a man with a passion for tattoos is honouring one of his final wishes before he sadly passed away by creating a piece of art for their family to keep and remind them of him.

Tattoo artist Chris Wenzel, 41, knew he was going to die and one of his final wishes was to leave a lasting memento for his children, so he asked his wife Cheryl if his ink-covered skin could be removed and preserved.

Now this is clearly not what most people would do in order to leave a piece of them behind after they die, but Chris's wife felt given his love of tattoos and art, it was the perfect way to remember him.

Cheryl, from Saskatoon, Canada, told The Globe and Mail: "I thought, that's different, but yeah, that's cool. I don't care what it takes I'm going to get this done for him.

"You can hang a picture on a wall. A tattoo is something that has been done for hundreds of years. It's just preserving it."

CTV Saskatoon

According to a local TV station Chris who had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, had been complaining about suffering from chest pains, and died in sleep in October.

Incredibly there is a much bigger market for this kind of bespoke request, as Cheryl found a family-run business in the United States that specialises in preserving tattoos of the dead.

Kyle Sherwood runs the company with his dad, he told CTV Saskatoon: "Tattoos, you know, tell a story about a person.

www.savemyink.tattoo

"And for someone to get something tattooed on them that they're displaying for life, you know, means something to them. You wouldn't burn or bury a Picasso and that's what some of these pieces are."

Save My Ink Forever will spend the next three months working with Chris's body to carry out an intricate surgical procedure to remove the skin. Boss Kyle said it is the largest tattoo preservation ever done in North America.

Chris owned and tattooed at his own studio and apparently designed his first tattoo when he was just seven-years-old after his aunt let him have a go on her skin.

Cheryl, who has been tattooed by Chris, also said that she would also have hers preserved and would hang right there alongside her husband.

Topics: Interesting, US News

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

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