Ashes Tattoo in Gloucester
A small amount of a person’s cremated remains, blended into tattoo ink and worked permanently into the skin: that is an ashes tattoo, and at Bubblegum Ink ® in Sandbach, Cheshire it has been the heart of the work for around 30 years, for families from Gloucester and every corner of the UK. Of all the ways to remember someone, it is the most permanent, made once with no second attempt, and that single truth is why the only question that really matters is whose hands you place it in.
What it gives is not the comfort of a keepsake but something nearer. A keepsake waits at home to be picked up; this goes wherever you go. It is there through the dull Tuesday and the sudden wave of missing them, not looked at but lived with, woven into you for the rest of your days.
Under Two Hours, Up the M5
From Gloucester the studio is an easy reach. The drive runs around 106 miles, a little under two hours, almost all of it a straight pull up the M5 onto the M6, with none of the cross-country fiddliness that longer trips sometimes bring. If the train suits you better, it goes via Birmingham New Street to Crewe, a few miles short of the studio, in under three hours. Either way the whole thing fits inside a day, with time to spare.
There is a reasonable question underneath all this: why travel at all, when Gloucester has tattooists of its own? The answer is simply the stakes. This is not work that can be redone if it falls short. There is one portion of ashes, one chance, and most people decide that a chance like that belongs with someone who has spent decades on this and nothing much else.
How the Ashes Are Made Ready
Almost everything that matters happens before the tattoo begins, in the preparation of the ashes, and this is the line between a studio that takes this seriously and one that does not. Cremated remains come coarse, unsterile and uneven, and to mix them into ink untreated is to leave your healing to luck. Here, luck is taken out of it.
A small portion 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 used on the day. The work is careful and unrushed, treated with the gravity it deserves, and it is why a tattoo made this way heals as soundly as any other. There is fuller detail on the are ashes tattoos safe page, and on how the ink comes together on the adding ashes into tattoo ink page.
| Bubblegum Ink ® | A general tattoo studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Experience with ashes | Around 30 years, ashes work the main focus | Occasional, as a sideline |
| Ashes preparation | Matched, cleaned, sterilised, contaminants removed | Often used raw |
| Your loved one’s ashes in view | Yes, the whole time | Varies |
| Travelling from Gloucester | A specialist up the M5 | Whoever happens to be nearest |
Always in Front of You
If there is one fear that tends to come along with people, it is the thought of the ashes being taken somewhere out of view, and it can be set down straight away. They are not. Throughout the whole appointment your loved one’s ashes stay in plain sight, prepared in front of you and worked into the tattoo in front of you, with nothing happening behind any door. It is not a special arrangement; it is simply the way every appointment is run.
Should you find you cannot handle the ashes yourself when the moment comes, that is no obstacle. Bring them as they are and the careful part is done on your behalf, with real gentleness, while you watch closely or turn your eyes away as you need to. The day gives way to grief, not the other way about.
A Name That Has Travelled
You might expect a private studio at the quiet end of a Cheshire lane to be little known beyond its own county, but the opposite is true. The work has been on the BBC and in the press at home and abroad, and the memorial tattoo for Treo, among the most decorated of military dogs in recent years, became one of the most widely seen pieces of its kind anywhere; you can read that on the tattooing ashes into clients page. The studio’s founder has taken awards more than once, yet the steadiest source of new clients remains the same as it has always been: the recommendation of someone who felt well cared for.
Something That Could Only Be Theirs
No two of these tattoos repeat, any more than the people do. Yours might be a likeness, a signature traced from a letter, a date your family alone would know, a flower, a fragment of a song, or a quiet symbol meaning something only to you and to them. Whatever shape it takes, the care behind it is the same as for every memorial that came before. To let ideas form, the memorial tattoo design ideas and handwriting ashes tattoo pages are a calm place to look, and the mum ashes tattoo, dad ashes tattoo and grandparent memorial tattoo pages show how others have done it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the ink itself any different to normal tattoo ink?
It is ordinary, high quality tattoo ink with a small, properly prepared amount of ashes blended in. Once mixed, it goes onto the skin and heals just as standard ink does. The preparation of the ashes is what makes that possible, and it is the part a specialist does and a general studio usually does not.
Could I have my pet’s ashes used instead, or as well?
Yes. The same process applies whether the ashes are a person’s or a pet’s, and some people choose to remember both in a single piece. It is worth saying so when you get in touch so the design can be planned around it.
Where on the body do these usually go?
Anywhere you wish. Forearms, wrists and over the heart are common choices, but it is entirely yours to decide, and the placement can be talked through alongside the design. Some prefer somewhere visible, others somewhere private and close.
Do you do the design with me, or should I arrive with one ready?
Either way works. Some people arrive with a clear picture, others with only a feeling and a few words, and the design is shaped together from there. Nothing has to be settled before you come.
What happens to the ashes I bring but do not use?
They stay with you. Only a small portion is taken, about a tablespoon, and the remainder goes home in its container exactly as it arrived. Nothing is kept or disposed of without you.
Starting the Conversation From Gloucester
It often helps to begin not with a booking in mind but with a single question, whatever is sitting closest to the front of your thoughts, and to let the rest follow from there. You can ask about a design, about the ashes, about the day, or about nothing more than whether this feels like the right thing at all.
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. There is no timetable to keep to; whenever you are ready, a little of the one you lost can be made into something you keep with you for good.
Written by Paul Cutler, founder of Bubblegum Ink ® and the artist behind its ashes tattoo work. Over a career spanning around three decades he has become one of the most established cremation ashes tattoo specialists in the country, with awards to his name and his work covered by the BBC and the wider press. More about Paul and the studio.