After the sudden loss of her beloved husband earlier in the year, a widow’s unconventional way of keeping his memory alive has some people planning to do the same and others feeling seriously disturbed. Angelica (@realangelicavibes) had her husband’s Pittsburgh Steelers tattoo preserved and framed.
“This isn’t a replica. You can see his hair, his wrinkles, the ink I kissed goodnight,” Angelica writes on TikTok.
Having a literal piece of her husband means a lot to her family, which includes the couple’s young son.
“It filled a void that was so big,” she says on TikTok. “I seriously can’t imagine if we wouldn’t have had this done.”
Her post spread like lightning across the internet in the five days since she posted it. As of this writing, it has over 10 million views and over 8,200 comments. A follow-up with more detailed information has crossed the 20 million views threshold.
Angelica has yet to respond to BroBible’s email seeking comment.
How Does It Work?
Angelica says she worked with Save My Ink Forever to preserve her late husband’s tattoo. The Ohio-based company says that it uses a proprietary process and is run by two morticians.
Angelica writes that it’s “the only company in the world that can do this.”
According to Save My Ink Forever’s website, you can contact them up to several days after someone passes. Then they send “a recovery kit” with all the necessary paperwork and materials.
Three months later, it writes that you’ll receive the tattoo in a frame selected by its framing artist along with “museum quality UV glasses.”
Via email, Save My Ink Forever told BroBible that spending a lifetime working in the funeral industry showed them how quickly people’s stories get lost after their deaths.
“Tattoos are permanent expressions of identity, memories, milestones, grief, love, and rebellion all etched into skin,” a company representative wrote. “We wanted to preserve that. Not just the ink, but the meaning behind it.”
The company insists it isn’t “about shock value. It’s about legacy.” It sees the preserved tattoos as more meaningful and tangible than an urn or an obituary.
A Tribute Or A Travesty?
People had a wide variety of reactions to Angelica’s posts.
Many acknowledged that funeral rituals are extremely personal. What one person, culture, or religion deems acceptable may make another recoil in horror.
“No weirder than keeping a jar of your loved one’s burned body on your mantel,” said one person with this mindset.
Another suggested it would’ve been popular in the Victorian Era. During this era, it was common practice to photograph the dead. Sometimes the living were photographed alongside their deceased loved one.
Some comments on Angelica’s post came from people who either planned to do the same with theirs or a loved one’s tattoos. Many expressed regret that they hadn’t known about this when they lost someone.
“I’d have kept his slipknot tattoos and his tattoo of my initial,” a widow lamented of her late husband.
Others shared the unique ways they honored a lost family member. One person said their brother made each of them lamps using their father’s titanium hip replacement parts.
“It started as a joke but dad really agreed to it, so we did it! Dark humor gets us thru the bad days,” they wrote.
One woman said a relative wore their deceased husband’s eyeball as a necklace. This prompted several to share that someone in their family had held onto glass eyes after a close relative died.
Naturally, some people recoiled. A few claimed they were inspired to add a clause in their will prohibiting their tattoos from being preserved.
Angelica responded to a person who said they would rather take their tattoos to the grave with them.
“I completely understand this and that’s why if I didn’t have his consent I would never have considered this,” she wrote. “These are the conversations people need to have now before it’s too late.”
Save My Ink Forever realizes its services may be off-putting for some people.
“We are aware our services aren’t for everyone; however, everyone has their own way of grieving,” a company representative told BroBible. “We aren’t hurting anyone by offering this service, it is done with consent, and ultimately to honor the individual and family wishes.”
Losing a loved one is a uniquely traumatic experience. Finding ways to process your grief can be the difference between moving on and remaining trapped in the misery.
For Angelica and her young son, who helped choose which of his father’s tattoos to preserve, this was the right choice. She says the feeling she got when she first saw the Steelers tattoo framed was “indescribable.”
“This has helped me in ways that I didn’t know I needed helped,” she says.
@realangelicavibes Everyone’s asking how we preserved my husband’s tattoo… This is just one piece of the story, but there is so much more to tell. But I want you to know how we did this, and why it mattered so much. 🖤 #tattoostorytime #grieftok #viralstory #preservedtattoo #widowstrong #storytime2025 #angelicavibes #realafmom #healinginpublic #steelers