posted on January 15, 2003 02:36:33 PM new
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - When miner Carl Whittaker wants to remember his late father, he doesn't pull out a photo album - he admires a framed display of his dad's skin, complete with tattoos, hanging in the dining room.
Whittaker's father, Barry, asked for the four tattoos on his back and arms to be removed and preserved following his death from cancer in 1999.
The tattoos - including a large image of an eagle entangled with a snake that once adorned Barry's back - now hang in his son's home.
Whittaker, 31, admits reactions to the memento are mixed.
"You've got your fors and against, and a lot of people are quite horrified by it all - they look and say 'Oh my God,'" he said Wednesday, as news of the tattoo tribute emerged. "The people that know me just know it was out of respect for my old man, because he ... was my best mate."
Whittaker, who lives in Mackay in northern Queensland state, said his father got the tattoos when he was terminally ill and asked in his will that they be removed and saved after his death.
A taxidermist was employed to remove them and a company agreed to tan the skin.
"I thought it was a bit on the wild side myself," Whittaker said. "But that's what he wanted, and I had a lot of respect for the man, so I did it."
"I suppose it preserves his memory," he added.
Whittaker said his wife did not object, and he hoped to pass the memorial on to his daughter, who is now 15 months old.
posted on January 15, 2003 06:15:45 PM new
I don't know if it still exists, but there was a museum in Japan that preserved tattoos like that. As a person with a lot of tattoos myself, I always wanted to get to that museum, but never had the dough. Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on January 15, 2003 06:32:30 PM new
Not sure why but this thread is making me think of that little ditty from the past "Tie me Kangaroo down" that included that infamous line..."tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred, tan me hide when I'm dead" and then something about hanging it on the shed......
posted on January 15, 2003 07:17:59 PM new
Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred
Tan me hide when I'm dead...
So I tanned his hide
when he died, Clyde--
and that's it hangin' on the shed!
edited to add important tense
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
[ edited by bunnicula on Jan 15, 2003 07:18 PM ]
but this thread is making me think of that little ditty from the past "Tie me Kangaroo down" that included that infamous line..."tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred, tan me hide when I'm dead" and then something about hanging it on the shed......