Ashes Tattoo in Edinburgh
Key Takeaways
- A direct train leaves Edinburgh Waverley for Crewe in as little as three hours and eight minutes, with no changes, and the studio sits just beyond Crewe.
- By road it is roughly 237 miles and four hours down the M74 and M6, and the Caledonian Sleeper covers the journey overnight for anyone who would rather rest on the way.
- Bubblegum Ink has specialised in ashes work for over 20 years, within a tattooing career of around 30.
- The ashes never leave the room. The portion is prepared in front of you and worked into the tattoo in front of you, and nothing is taken elsewhere at any point.
- Cremated remains come out of the urn coarse, unsterile and uneven, so they are sized, cleaned, sterilised to a clinical standard and cleared of contaminants first.
- If handling the ashes is beyond you on the day, that part is done for you while you watch or look away.
An ashes tattoo is one in which a small amount of a loved one’s cremated remains is bound into the ink, so the finished piece carries part of the person and not merely their likeness. It is made a single time and can never be made again, and that one fact is why whose hands create it outweighs every other consideration.
What it gives is the comfort of something carried rather than something kept. A grave is somewhere you go; a photograph is something you take down to look at. This is neither. It is already part of you, with you through the unremarkable hours and the ones that arrive without warning, for the whole of your life.
A Direct Train From Waverley
It looks a long way on the map, and at around 237 miles it is, but the trip is far gentler than the distance suggests. A direct train runs from Edinburgh Waverley to Crewe in as little as three hours and eight minutes, no changes at all, and the studio lies just beyond Crewe; for a journey of this length, staying in one seat the whole way changes everything. By road it is roughly four hours down the M74 and M6, and there is even the Caledonian Sleeper for those who would rather travel overnight. However you come, it is comfortably a day.
Why People Travel So Far
Edinburgh has fine tattooists of its own, so it is worth being plain about why families make a journey of this length to a small studio in Cheshire. It comes down to one unchanging fact: there is a single portion of your loved one’s ashes, and a single chance to honour it as it should be, with no remaking it if it goes wrong. Against that, distance counts for remarkably little. Most people would far rather entrust something irreplaceable to someone who has made this their specialism for two decades than to whoever happens to be nearest home.
The Work Done Before the Needle
Almost all the care in an ashes tattoo is given before the design is so much as begun, in the preparation of the ashes, and this is the line between a specialist and an ordinary studio. Fresh from the urn, cremated remains are coarse, unsterile and uneven in grain, and a studio that mixes them straight into ink leaves your healing to luck. Here that is never the approach.
A small part of your loved one’s ashes is brought to the correct particle size, cleaned, sterilised to a clinical standard and cleared of contaminants, before being prepared into the day’s ink. The work is careful and unhurried, given the gravity it deserves, and it is the reason a tattoo made this way heals as cleanly as any other. The fuller explanation is on the are ashes tattoos safe page, with the ink itself described on the adding ashes into tattoo ink page.
Nothing Leaves the Room
If a single anxiety tends to outweigh the rest, it is this one, and the answer is plain: your loved one’s ashes never leave your sight. Nothing is carried elsewhere, nothing is done behind a closed door, nothing is left to be taken on faith. You watch the small portion being readied, and you watch it become part of the tattoo, every step of it out in the open. That is not an assurance offered when asked for; it is simply how each appointment is run.
Should handling the ashes yourself be more than you can bear on the day, that is understood and provided for. Bring them as they are and the tender part is carried out for you, gently and with respect, while you watch closely or look away as you need. There is no correct way to grieve, and the day gives way to however it finds you.
Far Better Known Than Its Setting Suggests
A private studio at the end of a quiet Cheshire lane might be expected to stay little known, yet the opposite is true. The work has appeared on the BBC and in press both here and abroad, and the memorial tattoo for Treo, among the most decorated military dogs of recent years, became one of the most widely seen pieces of its kind anywhere; that story is told on the tattooing ashes into clients page. Paul Cutler, who runs the studio, is an award winning tattoo artist, and still the greater part of those who come are sent by someone they know who was cared for here.
A Tribute That Could Only Be Theirs
Because no two people are the same, no two of these are either. Yours might be a portrait, their handwriting taken from an old letter, a date your family alone would know, a flower they loved, a fragment of a song, or a quiet private symbol whose meaning stays between you. Whatever it becomes, it is given the same patient attention as every memorial made here before it. To let ideas settle, the memorial tattoo design ideas and handwriting ashes tattoo pages are a gentle start, and the mum ashes tattoo, dad ashes tattoo and grandparent memorial tattoo pages gather what others have chosen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Edinburgh to Crewe train really direct?
Yes. There are direct trains from Edinburgh Waverley to Crewe taking as little as three hours and eight minutes, no changes, and the studio is a short way past Crewe. For a journey of this length, being able to stay in one seat the whole way makes it far more manageable than the mileage implies. The Caledonian Sleeper is an option too.
Could I travel down the night before?
Many people making a long trip do. There are places to stay near the studio in and around Sandbach, and an overnight takes the pressure off the day itself, so the appointment is unhurried and the journey home is not rushed. The Caledonian Sleeper also lets you travel as you rest.
Will much of the ashes be used up?
No, only a small amount, about a teaspoons worth. You bring the whole container if you wish and nearly all of it returns home with you; just that little is taken for the tattoo. There is no need to separate or measure anything beforehand.
Can the tattoo be added to in future?
Yes, memorial pieces can be built on over time if you wish, and some people return to add to them. It is worth mentioning any longer term idea when you first get in touch, so the initial design leaves room for it.
What if I have never been tattooed before?
You would be in very familiar company. A great many who come for a memorial tattoo have never had one, and arrive thinking far more about who they have lost than about the tattoo itself. The appointment is gentle and unhurried, with all the time you need to settle and ask before anything starts.
Do I bring the ashes on the train with me?
Yes, they come with you in whatever container they already sit in. Nothing is posted ahead and nothing stays at the studio afterwards.
Is a Scottish crematorium’s ash any different to work with?
No. Cremation produces essentially the same material wherever it takes place, and the preparation is identical whether the ashes came from Mortonhall, Warriston or anywhere else.
Whether it hurts
No more than any tattoo of that size in that spot. Prepared ashes sit in the ink and alter nothing about how the work feels, as the do ashes tattoos hurt page sets out.
Ashes kept since long before the journey was ever considered
They are no less usable. Stored in an ordinary container, cremated remains do not deteriorate in a way that touches the preparation, whether it has been three years or thirty.
Coming down for a dog rather than a person
The process is the same whatever the animal, and a fair number of people make this journey for a dog, a cat or a horse. The pet ashes tattoo page covers that work.
Two of us travelling together
Often possible on a single visit, where family members want pieces made from the same ashes. Mention it at the first enquiry so the day can be set aside properly for everyone.
Looking after it on the way north
It is dressed before you leave and the aftercare written out for you, which counts for something when the day ends with three hours on a train. The ashes tattoo aftercare page has the detail.
Reaching Out From Edinburgh
There is no need to arrive with everything decided. A short message or call, saying who you would like to remember and roughly what you picture, is enough to open the conversation, and the design, the day and the journey down can all be worked out from there at whatever pace suits you.
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. For anyone in Edinburgh ready to carry a little of someone they loved, the studio is one direct train south, whenever the time feels right.
Paul Cutler founded Bubblegum Ink ® in Sandbach, Cheshire. Around 30 years a tattoo artist, over 20 of them on cremation ashes work, with tattoos covered by the BBC and press abroad. More about Paul.