When you lose a family member or a close friend, it has become common practice to keep something that reminds you of them each day.
Having been around for centuries, tattooing is becoming increasingly popular among those looking to remember their cherished loved ones.
While it is believed to have started off as a medical practice to treat various diseases, the practice later spread to the western world as explorers brought home tales of tattooed savages.
Many British sailors began getting tattoos while in faraway ports using them as a method of identification. If they were ever lost at sea, a distinctive tattoo would help people identify their body.
However, it wasn't until the 19th century that the upper classes started to get inked and tattoos began to be seen as a type of art form.
King George V of England, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and many other kings began having their royal crests tattooed on their bodies.
Since that time, tattoos have, of course, become more mainstream and are popular among both sexes of all economic classes.
In recent years, memorial tattoos have been taken to a whole new level with the introduction of ash tattoos.
The act of tattooing ashes into the skin is a different process to a normal ink tattoo although ashes are essentially carbon and carbon is the main ingredient in black ink.
The ashes must be baked and ground in order to reduce the residual bone matter which doesn't turn into a fine dust in the cremation process.
This method combines cremation ashes in the tattoo ink to have it permanently tattooed into the skin.
The cremated ashes are sifted to remove larger pieces until you are left with a fine dust.
The tattoo artists then takes a very small portion of the ashes and combines it with the tattoo ink and tattoos the final substance into the skin through a normal tattoo needle.
As with everything, the ways in which people are choosing to remember their loved ones are forever changing.and such decisions should be left to the individual.
