{"id":68680,"date":"2022-12-09T11:11:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=68680"},"modified":"2022-12-09T11:11:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:11:50","slug":"literally-becoming-part-of-us-ash-tattoos-gaining-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2022\/12\/09\/literally-becoming-part-of-us-ash-tattoos-gaining-popularity\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Literally becoming part of us\u2019 \u2014 ash tattoos gaining popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ash Tattoos:<\/strong> Drew O’Neill, a tattoo artist, preparing a tattoo design for his client in Calgary Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. Drew has been tattooing since he was teenager. (Photo by Namdeep Kaur\/The Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he pervasiveness of having a loved one\u2019s\u2014 or pet\u2019s\u2014 ashes embedded into a tattoo is becoming increasingly pervasive. <\/span>These are called ash tattoos<\/a>, and more people are favouring this way of cherishing a loved one\u2019s memories and legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

D<\/span>rew O\u2019Neill, 43, owns Drew\u2019s Tattoos at Brentwood Mall in northwest Calgary. He started tattooing during his teenage years.<\/p>\n

About a year ago, clients started approaching him with requests to do ash-based memorial tattoos. So far, he has done two of them: one for a mother who wanted his son\u2019s ash tattoo, and the other client wanted a tattoo for her dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for the client, good for the satisfaction,\u201d Drew said. \u201cYou know by helping somebody through their process of grieving one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew is trying to introduce this concept to others, as he feels that very few people aren\u2019t aware of this option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just introducing it now, but I\u2019ll be doing quite a few over time,\u201d said O’Neill.<\/p>\n

O’Neill recalls the first ash tattoo he did. It was for a mother who lost her child. For two years, she looked for a tattoo artist who was able to do it. While O’Neill has never done it before, he knew the procedure and wanted to help her.<\/p>\n

The next day, the woman came back with her child’s ashes. About a tablespoon of ash is taken, sterilized, and then mixed with the tattoo ink. O’Neill makes sure to mix the ink and the ashes in front of his client.<\/p>\n

Ashpreet Chahal, 23, got an ash tattoo of her late partner. The tattoo she received was an inscription of her partner’s birth date and death date.<\/p>\n

At first, Chahal was unsure about the process, but after receiving her tattoo, she felt a ray of light in the darkness of grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a way to keep him alive within me, permanently, forever. Not just in my memories, but in my body as well,\u201d said Chahal.<\/p>\n

Recent statistics<\/a> show that an estimated 45 million people in the U.S. have been inked at least once, with a growing number of individuals opting for memorial tattoos. Dates, lyrics, initials, quotes, and images are some of the styles people request for their ash-tattoos.<\/p>\n

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Drew O’Neill, a tattoo artist, prepares a tattoo design for his client in Calgary Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. Drew has been tattooing since he was teenager. (Photo by Namdeep Kaur\/The Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Literally becoming part of us\u2019: Preserve loved ones within you using cremated ash tattoos. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":782,"featured_media":68681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S5 Drew Tattoos NK","footnotes":""},"categories":[1590,5,1109,1248],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-mental-health","10":"category-style"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68680"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68770,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680\/revisions\/68770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}