If you have ever looked longingly at your beautiful tattoo and bemoaned the fact that it won't last forever, there's now a creative and slightly creepy solution for you.
The National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art (NAPSA) offers a service called "Save My Ink," which allows you to save and frame pieces of your tattooed skin when you pass away. Because why should you let your artwork die with you?
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So, how does framing a piece of your own epidermis work? Well, in order to have one of your tattoos preserved by this unique service, you must designate a beneficiary, who will then alert NAPSA within 18 hours of your death. NAPSA will then overnight a special skin removal kit to the funeral home, along with the necessary paperwork.
NAPSA assures prospective members that the process is very sanitary. The organization tells Hyperallergic that it's "essentially a chemical and enzymatic process that permanently alters the chemical structure thus permanently fixing it against decomposition (while preserving the integrity of the art)."
"NAPSA just launched a couple weeks ago, so while we are actively growing the membership, the association has not yet preserved a tattoo for a member yet since launching," Michelle Venorsky, a spokesperson for NAPSA, told Mashable in an email. "That being said, we have preserved 21 tattoos over the past year as we worked diligently before we launched to make sure the process was perfected, and all other member benefits were ready to go."
The purpose of the service is to memorialize the body art that an individual chose to proudly sport for the remainder of their life.
As NAPSA’s executive director Charles Hamm says, “You would never burn a Picasso or any piece of art you invested in and had a passion for ... Your tattoo is also art with a unique story, just on a different canvas.”
And let's be real — there's nothing more metal than having a piece of human flesh hanging on your wall.