Love of tattoos goes skin deep while you’re still alive – but in death?

HUMANS have always had strange beliefs about death and what happens afterwards. Egypt’s famous pyramids are ample proof of this. In Western countries there are organisations that will deep-freeze your remains after you die in the hope that one day science will find a cure for whatever killed you, and bring you back to life.

Frankly, I can’t think of anything more depressing than coming back to a world where I am decades out of date and probably unable to understand a single word that’s being said around me. It’s bad enough trying to interpret what teenagers are saying today, and I’m still alive.

One of the most bizarre and revolting death-related ideas I have heard of recently has been the preserving of tattoos. A heavily tattooed American called Charles Hamm has set up an organisation called Save My Ink.

After spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours having his body turned into what he believes is a work of art, he doesn’t want it destroyed after he dies.

“You would never burn or bury a Picasso or other valuable work of art after investing heavily in it,” he says. “A tattoo is also a work of art, just on a different kind of canvas.” Now he has arranged to have his skin removed from his body, preserved and framed.

Frankly, I am appalled, but I am sure there are enough strange people around who will actually buy and display Hamm’s pelt. Or maybe his grandchildren will point to it with pride and say, “That’s my Grandpa up there above the TV set.”

Gunning It

American gun lobbyists are keen to point out that in Switzerland more than half the adult population own guns, but that country’s crime rate is the lowest in the world. What they tend to ignore is that Switzerland has no permanent army and every adult male is liable to be called up for military service should the need arise.

Because of this, men are issued with army rifles (but no ammunition, note) and have to keep them and look after them.

That’s rather different from simply saying more than half the population carry guns.

I was appalled by the casual attitude toward firearms when I visited America.

At all the places I stopped during a road trip along Route 66, I saw men striding along with revolvers swinging at their sides. Even the chap who came to replenish the stocks of cold drinks in the vending machine in Rosie’s Diner in the middle of Arizona had two guns dangling casually from his belt.

I suppose the fact you’re carrying guns makes you feel invincible.

I’m surprised there aren’t even more

fatal shootings in the US.

Last Laugh

A tough cowboy casually entered the local forge and picked up a horseshoe that a blacksmith had just finished shaping, then quickly dropped it as it was still hot.

“Ah,” smirked the blacksmith, “too hot for you to handle, eh?”

“Nah,” said the cowboy. “It just doesn’t take me very long to look at a horseshoe.”

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