One. No such thing as DIY. In many counties in the US, it’s difficult to get a permit to burn leaves, yet alone a human body. There are DIY funerals and green burials (which have a large degree of family and friend involvement), but when it comes to cremation you’ll need to use a cremation […]
WARNING: This post contains photos of the embalming process. If you are sensitive to photos of deceased persons and bodily fluids, please do not continue reading. The purpose of this post isn’t to salaciously satisfy your morbid appetite. My hope is that it can create a better (albeit fundamental) understanding of the process of embalming. All […]
Some of these photos may be disturbing. All of these photos have been sourced either from the internet. 1. This is a needle injector, which is effectively used for mouth closure. We use this to set the features before we embalm. Once the mouth and eyes are closed (see number 2), then we can think […]
Death rites and rituals are hardly ever static. Change is the constant in both life in death. And so it is that change is here for the funeral business in the United States. We sit in liminality. The “traditional funeral” (aka embalming and burial [as defined by the FTC]) in the US is becoming outdated […]
One. It’s weird. Yes, we lay a nekked person on a table and take out their blood, replacing said blood with embalming fluid. Weird? Yes. But so is cremation, sky burial, endocannibalism, famadihana and mummification. Two. It does not preserve the body indefinitely. You can’t dig up an embalmed body from 1920 and expect it […]