---
title: "Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes"
id: "1900"
type: "page"
slug: "making-tattoos-with-cremation-ashes"
published_at: "2019-10-12T19:20:26+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-06-10T18:28:34+00:00"
url: "https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/making-tattoos-with-cremation-ashes/"
markdown_url: "https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/making-tattoos-with-cremation-ashes.md"
excerpt: "Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes: The Real Process, Start To Finish How a..."
---

# Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes

### Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes: The Real Process, Start To Finish

## How a tattoo with your loved one’s ashes is made, from the moment you order to the moment your artist finishes the piece.

Curious how making tattoos with cremation ashes actually works? This page walks you through it, from sending us your loved one’s ashes to walking out of your local tattoo studio with the finished memorial tattoo. Real client stories included.

![cremation tattooing inks](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/cremation-tattooing-inks.jpg)

### Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes Is A Safe Practice

With the help of Cremation Ink ®, making tattoos with cremation ashes is a careful, professional process that produces bright, vibrant tattoos. Where a local tattoo shop tipping unprocessed ashes into the ink pot tends to give poor and disappointing results, Cremation Ink ® has built the process and protocols that make this work properly.

We’ve been doing this very bespoke work for twenty years. The key is that we don’t just prepare the ashes, we make our own tattoo ink too, so the prepared ashes are matched to the pigment in particle size and the two become one true professional ink, rather than raw ashes stirred into an off-the-shelf bottle. Read on for the full picture.

![making tattoos with human ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/making-tattoos-with-human-ashes.jpeg)

### The Tattoo Process

Cremation Ink ® supplies this service to clients all around the world. When you order, we send you a kit so you can post your loved one’s ashes safely back to us. Once we receive them, one of our experienced team members is assigned to your order, and they’re the one who’ll treat your loved one’s ashes with the respect and care they deserve.

That team member stays with your loved one’s ashes the whole way through, working only on your order from arrival to dispatch. The ashes are cleaned, sterilised and refined to a fine, consistent texture, then infused into tattoo ink we make ourselves, formulated so the ashes and the pigment are matched in particle size and sit together as one true ink. The result is a bottle of your chosen colour, infused with your loved one’s ashes. Vibrant, bright, and made to keep your loved one with you for life.

For the technical side, our [process](https://cremationink.com/the-process-of-ashes-into-tattoo-ink/)
 page walks through every step in depth.

![making tattoos with human ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/making-tattoos-with-human-ashes.jpg)

### Why Raw Ashes Need Preparing

As mentioned on our broader [tattoos with ashes](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/)
 page, raw cremation ashes aren’t ready to tattoo as they come back to you. Here we expand on that.

Even after the extreme heat of cremation, the ashes that come back are coarse and unprepared, nothing like the fine, even consistency of tattoo pigment, and they haven’t been cleaned or sterilised for use in skin. That’s the practical reason they can’t simply be tipped into an ink pot at a studio.

Getting them ready is specialist work. Cremation Ink ® uses specialist equipment to clean, sterilise and refine the ashes, then infuses them into ink we make ourselves so the particle sizes match and the finished ashes-infused ink behaves like any professional tattoo ink. That’s what produces a bright, long-lasting tattoo. For the full safety picture, the [safe cremation ash tattoo](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/safe-cremation-ash-tattoo/)
 page goes into it in depth.

![making tattoos with pet cremation ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/making-tattoos-with-pet-cremation-ashes.jpg)

### The Motivation Behind A Cremation Tattoo

Making tattoos with cremation ashes is a way of paying tribute to your loved one through a tattoo design that holds the love you have for them. It’s one of the only options that genuinely keeps you and your loved one together for the rest of your life.

Why inter your loved one in a remote graveyard or scatter them in a field, when you can keep a part of them with you forever? That’s the service Cremation Ink ® offers worldwide. With clients embracing it from all over the globe, we’ve become specialists in the care and respect that your loved one deserved.

If you’d like to read about the grief side, our [coping with grief](https://cremationink.com/coping-with-grief/)
 page covers it honestly, from over twenty years of sitting with grieving people.

### Why The Right Artist Matters

Once cremation ashes have been properly cleaned, sterilised and refined, and infused into ink made to match them, they behave in the skin like the pigment in any professional tattoo ink. That’s the whole point of having the preparation done by a specialist rather than attempted at a studio.

Some clients want to commemorate a favourite animal or pet rather than a person. Human or not, the principle is the same. Ashes are ashes, and the process is consistent. The most important thing is that the remains are processed properly by a specialist service before any tattooing happens. That’s exactly what Cremation Ink ® delivers.

Beyond a tattoo, there are plenty of other ways to commemorate your loved one. You could have a small portion of their ashes turned into a diamond and made into bespoke jewellery, placed inside a firework to light up the sky, or mixed into oil paints for a memorial painting. Once you open yourself up to the creative possibilities, your loved one stays not just with you but part of your life and environment in beautiful, lasting ways.

![making ashes tattoos](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/making-ashes-tattoos.jpg)

### A Permanent, Lasting Reminder

Many of our clients say there’s nothing greater or deeper than a lasting memory worn on the skin. One recent client described her experience: “It’s a different sensation than any other tattoo I’ve ever had. I have a part of my loved one with me forever. The fact that I know I have my gran’s ashes in my tattoo brings me closer to my grandmother on so many levels.”

Here’s another story. When one of our clients decided to get her seventh tattoo, she wanted to add something special to commemorate her recently passed grandmother. She’d already heard about ashes tattoos from a friend who’d had one done using Cremation Ink ®, so she knew exactly what she wanted to do with a small portion of her grandmother’s ashes. She brought her finished, processed Cremation Ink ® ink to her favourite local tattoo studio, where her artist used it to create a purple gladiola flower, her grandmother’s favourite. She has now with her gran every day.

That’s the heart of what making tattoos with cremation ashes does. It turns ashes from something you keep in an urn into something you carry with you, on you, every day.

![making tattoos with cremation ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/making-tattoos-with-cremation-ashes-2.jpg)

### Reflecting On Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes

Bringing your loved one and yourself closer together forever is now a simple process with the service of Cremation Ink ®. Making tattoos with cremation ashes is now safe, professional, and available anywhere in the world, delivered directly to your door. Before this service existed, this was a difficult and grey-area process.

Now, with over twenty years of experience in this very bespoke service available to the world through Cremation Ink ®, it’s a beautiful way to keep your loved one safe, show the respect and love you hold for them, and walk out of a tattoo studio of your choice with a bright, vibrant, forever tattoo holding a part of them.

When you feel ready, you can [order your inks here](https://cremationink.com/shop/)
. We’ll send out a kit, walk you through it, and look after the rest. Or [contact us](https://cremationink.com/contact-us/)
 first if you’d like to talk it through.

![Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes FAQs](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ashes-tattoo-facts.jpg)Making Tattoos With Cremation Ashes FAQs

#### How does making a tattoo with cremation ashes work?

Cremation Ink ® handles the process in our UK lab. You order online and we send you a kit. You return a tablespoon of your loved one’s ashes safely through the post. We assign one technician to your order, who follows your loved one’s ashes through every stage. The ashes are cleaned, sterilised and refined to a fine, consistent texture, then infused into tattoo ink we make ourselves, so the ashes match the pigment in particle size and become one true professional ink. The finished bottle is sent back to you, ready for your local artist.

#### Can my local tattoo studio make this tattoo themselves with raw ashes?

We strongly recommend against it, and most reputable studios will refuse. Raw cremation ashes are coarse and unprepared and haven’t been sterilised for use in skin, and the texture has to be refined to work with tattoo pigment, which a studio isn’t equipped to do. The right route is to have Cremation Ink ® prepare the ink properly off-site, then take the finished bottle to your local studio.

#### Is making tattoos with cremation ashes safe?

Yes, when Cremation Ink ® handles the preparation. We clean, sterilise and refine the ashes thoroughly, then infuse them into ink we make ourselves so the particle sizes match. By the time the bottle reaches your tattoo artist, the ink is prepared for use under the skin and the tattoo heals like any other quality tattoo.

#### How much of my loved one’s ashes do you need?

About a tablespoon per bottle. Anything Cremation Ink ® doesn’t use during the process is returned to you with the finished ink. Nothing is wasted.

#### Can the ink be used for both human and pet ashes?

Yes. The process is the same. Cremation Ink ® has made tattoos for clients commemorating people and pets alike, and the result is just as bright and meaningful either way.

#### Will the tattoo look different from a normal tattoo?

No. Because Cremation Ink ® infuses the ashes into a professional tattoo ink we make ourselves, the finished tattoo looks like any other quality tattoo. Your artist can line, shade and pack colour with it like any normal ink.

#### How long does it take?

Once your loved one’s ashes arrive at Cremation Ink ®, the finished ink is usually ready within five to nine days, depending on lab workload. The bottle is then sent back to you tracked and signed for, anywhere in the world.

#### What if I want to commemorate my loved one in other ways too?

You can. Many clients keep a small portion aside for the tattoo and use other portions for things like a memorial diamond, firework rocket, oil painting or pressed vinyl record. Cremation Ink ® only needs a tablespoon, so the rest of the ashes stay with you for whatever you decide.

#### How do I know it’s my loved one’s ashes in the finished ink?

Cremation Ink ® works on only one set of ashes at a time per technician. One member of staff is assigned to your order and follows your loved one’s ashes through every stage. There’s no risk of mixing or cross-contamination between orders.

#### Can I have it done in colour?

Yes. Cremation Ink ® offers a full colour range. Your local artist can use the ink for lining, shading and packing colour, in whatever palette your design calls for.

![all cremation tattoo ink - cremation ink](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/all-cremation-tattoo-ink.jpg)[Cremation Ink – Shop](https://cremationink.com/shop)

![memorial tattoos with ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Memorial-Tattoos-With-Ashes.jpeg)[memorial tattoos with ashes](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/memorial-tattoos-with-ashes)

![cremation ashes tattoos near me](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cremation-ashes-tattoos-near-me.jpeg)[cremation ashes tattoo near me](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/cremation-ashes-tattoos-near-me-2)

![safe cremation ash tattoo](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/safe-cremation-ash-tattoo.jpeg)[safe cremation ash tattoo](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/safe-cremation-ash-tattoo)

![tattoos with cremation ashes near me](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/tattoos-with-cremation-ashes-near-me.jpeg)[tattoos with cremation ashes near me](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/making-tattoos-with-cremation-ashes)

![Tattooing With Cremation Ashes](http://cremationink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tattooing-With-Cremation-Ashes.jpeg)[tattooing with cremation ashes](https://cremationink.com/tattoos-with-ashes/tattooing-with-cremation-ashes)