The loss of a spouse can be devastating to the partner left behind. Especially if the loved one is lost at a young age. Processing the grief caused by such a loss is deeply personal. Those left behind should be given as much space as they need to grieve and heal, in their own way.
So it is not without empathy that we bring you the story of Angelica Radevski and the, ahhh, unique way that she has chosen to process her grief and remember her late husband, TJ.
Angelica and TJ were lifelong friends before they became a couple. They were together for years and were married in 2021.
Sadly, Angelica found herself the thirty-five-year-old widowed mother of the couple's ten-year-old son when TJ unexpectedly passed away in March.
In memoriam, she had the mortician remove a tattoo (she chose her son's favorite) from her late husband's body before his cremation. The tattoo, a skull adorned with the logo of the family's favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, was sent to a company to be preserved and framed.
It took ninety days for Save My Ink Forever, the Ohio company that specializes in human tattoo preservation, to complete the morbid memento.
After the funeral, Angelica used a marker to outline the exact tattoo they wanted to preserve on TJ’s right arm. A mortician then carefully removed the skin, placed it in a special preservation kit provided by the Ohio-based company Save My Ink Forever, and sent it off before TJ’s body was cremated.
The preservation process took around 90 days. When the company returned the framed tattoo — encased in glass and set in a dark wooden frame — the moment was overwhelming.
“When he handed it to us, I was shocked,” Angelica told People. “And it was a good shock — so many things you didn’t know you were missing instantly felt better.”
The tattoo still held TJ’s skin texture, the fine details of his wrinkles, even stray hairs.
“This isn’t a replica. You can see his hair, his wrinkles, the ink I kissed goodnight,” Angelica wrote on TikTok.
Angelica and her son say the piece gives them a profound physical and emotional connection they couldn’t get from an urn.
The reaction to the framed heirloom has been exactly what you'd expect.
The idea was not without its supporters, although they were a bit harder to find.
Others related the leathered ink as a reminder of something much darker.
It's not hard to see how the practice of preserving a loved one's skin, no matter how well-intended, can be seen as disturbing to most people.
We intend no judgment to a grieving widow or a young boy who's lost his dad, but perhaps the practice of leathering human skin is best left as history.
Rest in peace, TJ. May your memory be a blessing.
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