Ashes Tattoo in Dundee
Key Takeaways
- One direct train runs from Dundee to Crewe with no changes, which for a journey of this length is the difference between a hard day and a bearable one.
- By road it is close to 290 miles and around five hours, so Dundee clients travel further than almost anyone who comes to the studio.
- Cremated remains leave the urn coarse, unsterile and uneven, and are sized, cleaned, sterilised and cleared of contaminants before going into the ink.
- Around a teaspoon is used and the rest never leaves your keeping, so almost everything you carry down comes back up with you.
An ashes tattoo is one in which a small portion of a loved one’s cremated ashes is mixed into the ink, leaving something of them held permanently within your skin. For people in Dundee, this is the work of Bubblegum Ink ®, a specialist studio in Sandbach, Cheshire, where it has been the focus of the craft for around 20 plus years. There is a single opportunity to make it and no means of redoing it, which is precisely why the hands you choose are the heart of the whole decision.
The solace of it lies in how little it asks of you afterwards. It is not a place you go or an object you tend. It simply accompanies you, worn in your own skin, present in the smallest moments of an ordinary week as much as in the days you set aside for remembering. People are drawn to that quiet permanence above all.
Honest About the Distance From Dundee
There is no softening it: Dundee to the studio is a long way, the better part of 290 miles by road and close to five hours through the heart of the country and down the M6. The most restful way is the train, a long but direct run from Dundee to Crewe, a short distance from the studio, where you need not change once and can simply sit with your thoughts the whole way. Those who come this far are travelling further than almost anyone, and they do it with open eyes.
Why make such a journey when Dundee has tattooists of its own? Because an ashes tattoo permits no second attempt, and a single portion of someone’s ashes deserves the surest hands available, wherever they happen to be. When the choice is between near and right, people travelling from Scotland tend to choose right, and think the distance a small thing beside it.
What Sets a Specialist Apart
Almost everything that distinguishes this from an ordinary tattoo happens before the needle is touched, in how the ashes themselves are made ready. Cremated remains, untreated, are coarse and unsterile and uneven in size, and a studio that mixes them into ink as they come is trusting your healing to chance. That chance is removed here, deliberately and entirely.
A small measure of your loved one’s ashes is brought to the correct particle size, cleaned, sterilised to a clinical standard and cleared of contaminants, then prepared into the ink for the day. It is exacting, unhurried work, met with the seriousness it asks for, and it is why a tattoo made in this way heals as cleanly as any other. The reasoning is set out on the are ashes tattoos safe page, and the ink itself on the adding ashes into tattoo ink page.
Never Once Out of Your Sight
The reassurance most people are quietly waiting for is given without their having to ask: from start to finish, your loved one’s ashes stay where you can see them. There is no other room they are taken to, no closed door, no moment they leave your view. The small portion is prepared in front of you and worked into the tattoo in front of you. It is not a promise made only when requested; it is simply the way every appointment is conducted.
And if you find you cannot handle the ashes yourself when the day comes, you will not be expected to. Bring them as they are, and that gentle task is carried out for you with the care it deserves, while you watch closely or look away as you need to. The day bends itself around your grief, never asking grief to bend around it.
A Name That Travels a Long Way North
You might suppose a small, private studio down a Cheshire lane would be unheard of beyond its region, yet its reputation reaches a very long way. The work has been shown on the BBC and written about in the press at home and abroad, and the memorial tattoo for Treo, one of the most decorated military dogs of recent times, became among the most widely seen of its kind in the world; the story is told on the tattooing ashes into clients page. Paul Cutler, who runs the studio, has won recognition for his work many times over, and yet most arrivals are sent simply by someone they know who left here feeling cared for.
Yours and Theirs Alone
No two of these tattoos are alike, since no two of the people they hold ever were. Yours might take the form of a portrait, a signature copied from something they once wrote, a date your family alone would know, a flower, a line or two, or a small private sign meaning something only to the two of you. However it takes shape, it is given the same patient attention as every memorial before it. The memorial tattoo design ideas and handwriting ashes tattoo pages are a gentle place to begin, and the mum ashes tattoo, dad ashes tattoo and grandparent memorial tattoo pages show what others have chosen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Given the distance, should I stay over or do it in a day?
Either works, and it is yours to decide. The direct train from Dundee to Crewe is long but lets you rest the whole way, and some people prefer to break the journey with an overnight stay and travel home unhurried. There is no need to rush the day at the studio whichever you choose.
Is the booking flexible if I am coming a long way?
Yes. Appointments for those travelling a distance are arranged with that in mind, with time set aside so nothing about the day feels pressured. Should travel from Scotland fall through on the day, it can be moved without fuss; you are not penalised for a long journey going wrong.
How soon after a death can this be done?
There is no set timing. Some come within weeks, some after many years; the ashes keep, and the right moment is whenever you feel ready rather than any window you must meet. It is arranged entirely around you.
Could ashes from more than one person be used?
Yes. Where people have lost more than one loved one, their ashes can be brought together into a single tattoo or worked into separate pieces, however feels right. Mention it at the first contact so the design can hold them all.
What if I change my mind about the design on the day?
That is fine, and it is why nothing is begun until the design is settled with you in person. You are free to adjust it when you arrive, and the tattoo only starts once you are sure. Travelling far does not commit you to a design you have had second thoughts about.
Carrying ashes on the train from Scotland
People do it regularly and there is nothing to arrange in advance. Bring them in whatever container suits the journey, a smaller one if the urn is heavy or awkward, and they come home with you the same day.
How little is actually needed?
About a teaspoon. It surprises most people how small the amount is, and it is measured out at the studio in front of you rather than asked of you beforehand. The how much ashes for a tattoo page explains it properly.
Sorting the design out before I book the ticket
Wise, over this distance. Photographs, handwriting and rough ideas can all be exchanged by phone and email well beforehand, so what is left for the day is the tattoo alone. The handwriting ashes tattoo page is a useful starting point if a signature is what you have in mind.
Will it hurt?
No differently to any other tattoo of that size in that place. Once the ashes are prepared they behave as ordinary ink does, so nothing about the sensation changes. There is more on the do ashes tattoos hurt page.
Ashes kept since long before I knew this was possible
No difficulty at all. Stored in a normal container they do not deteriorate in any way that touches the preparation, and a fair number of people travel for someone who was never marked at the time.
Can this be done for an animal?
Yes, and it is a large part of the work. Dogs, cats and horses come to the studio as often as people do, with more on the pet ashes tattoo page.
Aftercare with five hours of travelling ahead
It is dressed before you leave and the aftercare written out to take with you, which matters more than usual on a day that ends this way. The ashes tattoo aftercare page has the rest.
Reaching Out From Dundee
Distance need not be the first thing you sort out. A good opening is just to say who you would like to remember and roughly what you picture, and the practicalities of travelling from Scotland can be worked through together from there, at whatever pace suits you. Nothing is committed to in a first message.
Call 01270 385001, email info@bubblegumink.com, or use the contact page or the contact form at the foot of this page. Bubblegum Ink ® is a private, appointment only studio in Sandbach, Cheshire, with around 30 years behind it. However far the journey, when you are ready, a little of the person you have lost can be made into something kept with you for the rest of your life.
Written by Paul Cutler, who set up Bubblegum Ink ® and works from the private studio in Sandbach, Cheshire. Around 30 years into tattooing, he has given roughly the last 20 of them to cremation ashes memorials and devised the preparation the studio still works to. People come to him from every corner of Britain and from further afield. His tattoos have been on the BBC, in press here and overseas, and awarded several times. His story is on the about Bubblegum Ink page.