GriefINK

Book excerpt: Nearly fifty million people have tattoos in the United States, and that number is growing. In the past decade there has been a significant rise in memorial tattoos--those in which the tattoo serves to highlight the loss of a child, a spouse, a lover, a parent, a friend or pet.GriefINK: Tattoo as the language of Grief, is a collection of grief stories and powerful photographs of memorial tattoos which highlight the continued bond that people share with loved ones well after death. The featured participants--fathers, mothers, granddaughters, grandmothers, peace officers, and military personnel--share their losses, decision-making process to receive a memorial tattoo, and the impact that the finished tattoo has had upon their lives. By wearing an outer expression of their inner loss, these individuals show how memorial tattoos do not merely punctuate the death of someone, but rather, invite others into the living world of relationship.Using her education and experience as a therapist, grief specialist, and writer, Susan Salluce, MA, CT, offers the bereaved, the tattoo industry, and professionals in the helping fields a cutting-edge view of memorialized loss. Matt Molinari's exceptional photographs will appeal to photographer enthusiasts who seek to capture not simply an image, but the emotion and story behind the picture.