Tattoo With Cremation Ashes

Why A Tattoo Is The Choice So Many Families Make

A tattoo with cremation ashes is the only memorial option that goes with you everywhere, every day, for the rest of your life. Most other tributes (an urn, a plot, a piece of jewellery, a tree) sit in a place. A tattoo, with your loved one’s ashes properly infused into the ink by Cremation Ink ®, sits on you. That’s the difference, and it’s the reason this option has grown into one of the most chosen tributes among the families we work with.

The tattoo itself looks and behaves like any other quality tattoo. Your local artist uses the tattoo ink with ashes bottle we send the same way they’d use any of their other professional inks. What’s different sits quietly inside the ink, in your skin, for the rest of your life.

How A Tattoo With Cremation Ashes Works

You order a bottle from us, and we send out a small kit so you can post about a tablespoon of your loved one’s ashes back to us safely. At our UK lab, one of our technicians is assigned to your order, and they follow your loved one’s ashes through every stage of the process from arrival to finished bottle. No mixing with other orders, no chance of cross-contamination.

The ashes are taken through full preparation. Heavy metals, medicinal residue and other contaminants are extracted. The ashes are sterilised. They’re then properly infused into our high quality tattoo pigment so the result is a true infusion rather than just specks of ash sitting in the ink. The finished bottle is sent back to you, alongside any ashes that weren’t used in the process. You can then take that bottle to your local tattoo studio.

For more on what makes the tattoo safe, see our safe cremation ash tattoo page, or the dedicated is it safe to put ashes in tattoo ink page if you want the safety question answered head-on.

Other Things You Can Do With Cremation Ashes

As well as using the service of Cremation Ink ® for a memorial tattoo, there are several other things families do with cremation ashes. Many of our clients combine more than one (a tattoo and a scattering, or a tattoo and a piece of jewellery for a family member). Let’s go through the popular options.

Internment Of Ashes

Internment is where you bury the ashes in the ground. The ashes can be sealed in plastic and placed in an urn, or buried without the plastic in a wooden, biodegradable urn. The difference is what happens over time. With plastic, the ashes are protected from the elements. Without it, the ashes slowly dissipate back into the ground over the years.

For some devout religions, internment of ashes must take place on holy ground, such as a graveyard or a memorial spot in your local church grounds. If you or your loved one followed a faith with specific rules around this, your local priest or minister can guide you through what’s expected.

Use Ashes To Make A Portrait

There are some incredible artists out there who use their skills to create portraits or art with cremation ashes mixed into the medium. Watercolours, deep rich oils, or any other artistic medium. The ashes are blended in and become part of the painting itself. Most clients choose a portrait of the person they’ve lost, so they have a daily visual reminder on the wall.

It’s a beautiful option, particularly for families who already love art, or for someone whose loved one had a strong creative streak.

Stuffed Toy Keepsakes

Stuffed toys can be a real help in the grieving process. Sometimes all you want is a hug with the person you’re missing the most. The ashes are placed in a plastic or silk bag and sewn into the body of the teddy or stuffed toy, so the comfort of holding it carries an extra layer of meaning.

You can do this at home yourself with some careful cutting of the stitches on a favourite teddy, the ashes pouch placed inside, and a quality repair afterwards. Or a specialist keepsake-maker can do it for you with a custom-made toy designed for the purpose.

Cremation Jewellery

There are some lovely jewellery artisans out there who can incorporate ashes into striking pieces. They can embed ashes in resin and mount them in a ring or pendant. They can make a capsule that holds a small amount of ashes for you to wear around your neck. They can create bracelets, lockets and earrings, in silver, gold or other metals. Many families have several pieces made so each member of the family carries something of their loved one with them.

Why The Tattoo Stays The Most Personal Of All

Each of the options above is meaningful in its own way, and many families choose more than one. But the tattoo is the one that goes with you. The one that sits on your own skin, somewhere you’ll see it every day. The one you can’t lose, can’t leave behind, can’t put away in a drawer.

Cremation Ink ® makes the tattoo safe to do. We take the technical, specialist side off your local tattoo artist’s hands, in our UK lab, so the bottle that reaches them is a ready-to-use professional ink with your loved one safely woven through it. From there, your artist creates the memorial tattoo you’ve been picturing.

If you’d like to read further around the topic, our wider tattoos with ashes page is the overview, or have a look at the making tattoos with cremation ashes page for the lab-side detail.

When you feel ready, you can order your inks here. We’ll send out a kit, walk you through it, and look after the rest. Or contact us first if you’d like to talk it through.

How does a tattoo with cremation ashes work?

You order a bottle from Cremation Ink ®, post us about a tablespoon of your loved one’s ashes in the kit we send, and our lab takes them through full preparation: contaminant removal, sterilisation, and proper infusion into high quality professional tattoo pigment. The finished bottle is sent back to you, ready for your local tattoo artist to use the same as any other professional ink.

Can my local tattoo studio mix the ashes themselves instead?

We strongly recommend against it, and most reputable studios will refuse. Cremation ashes still contain heavy metals, medicinal residue and other contaminants that need extracting before anything goes under the skin. A studio autoclave isn’t enough on its own. The proper approach is to use Cremation Ink ® to handle the lab work, then take the prepared bottle to your local studio.

Is a tattoo with cremation ashes safe?

Yes, when Cremation Ink ® has prepared the ink. The ashes go through full contaminant removal and sterilisation in our UK lab, and the finished bottle is a professional, ready-to-use tattoo ink. From there, the tattoo heals exactly like any other quality tattoo.

How much of my loved one’s ashes do you need?

About a tablespoon per bottle of ink. You keep the rest, and any ashes Cremation Ink ® doesn’t use are returned to you alongside the finished bottle, so you can also do something with the remainder.

Can I combine a tattoo with other tributes for my loved one?

Yes, and many families do. A common pattern is keeping some ashes in an urn, scattering or interning some in a meaningful place, and reserving a small portion for the memorial tattoo. The tablespoon we need leaves you free to do anything you like with the rest.

What’s the difference between a tattoo and other ashes tributes?

A tattoo goes with you. An urn, a plot, a columbarium, a tree, a piece of jewellery, all of these sit in a particular place. A tattoo with ashes is the only option that travels with you wherever you go, every day, for the rest of your life. That’s why so many families now choose it.

Will my own local tattoo artist be able to do it?

Yes. Because Cremation Ink ® handles the specialist work in our UK lab, the bottle that reaches your artist behaves like any other quality professional tattoo ink. Any good local artist can use it without any special training or technique.

Does the tattoo heal differently?

No. Because the ashes have been properly infused into a professional tattoo ink by Cremation Ink ®, the tattoo heals exactly like any other quality tattoo. Standard aftercare from your artist applies.

Can the ink be in colour, or only black?

A full colour range is available. The Cremation Ink ® ink lines, shades and packs colour like any other quality professional ink, so your design can be in any palette that suits.

How long does the whole process take?

Once your loved one’s ashes arrive at Cremation Ink ®, the finished ink is usually ready within five to nine days. The bottle is then posted back to you tracked and signed for, anywhere in the world.