It might sound like a macabre Roald Dahl story, but could
soon be reality with the help of a Dutch entrepreneur who has
set up a business to preserve the tattoos of the dead.
"Everyone spends their lives in search of immortality, and this
is a simple way to get a piece of it," Peter van der Helm, the
tattoo shop owner behind the concept, said in an interview.
"Everybody with tattoos has that idea. It's not a new idea, we
just found a way to actually do it."
Hirschfeld and about 30 other clients of the "Walls and Skin"
tattoo parlor, which is tucked away in a canal house in the
Dutch capital, have donated their skin to the company in a will
and each paid a few hundred euros.
When they die a Dutch pathologist will remove the tattoo and
freeze or package it in formaldehyde, ideally within 48 hours.
It will then be sent to a laboratory outside the Netherlands,
where a 12-week procedure extracts water and replaces it with
silicone, leaving a rubbery substance.
Hirschfeld, an only child with no children of his own, does not
yet know who will inherit his tattoo, but he knows he wants it
saved.
"People have stuffed animals in their house, so why not skin?"
he said.
"If you look in certain old tattoo shops, there is always a jar
with special water and a piece of skin in it and it does look
terrible. This way it looks much better, so if I can be
preserved like this, yes please!"
Hirschfeld's tattoos cover his body from the neck down.
"Some people are so important to me I always want to carry them
with me and this way I can," said Hirschfeld, whose mother died
of cancer.
Van der Helm said he was mainly inspired by the idea of
preserving the best works by skilful tattoo artists.
"Vincent van Gogh was a poor man when he died. You and me can't
buy a Van Gogh," he said. "Tattooing is the people's form of
art."
(Editing by Pravin Char)
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