Consuming memorial tattoos: the body as marketplace object?

The body is central to contemporary consumer culture. However, whilst material objects such as family heirlooms can be used by the living create a sense of immortality for deceased, little known about why persons might turn their own impermanent bodies symbolic legacy lost loved ones. Drawing on multiple in-depth interviews with eight memorial tattoo consumers, photographs, and consumption diary, this paper teases out three unique qualities tattooed in lives those left behind: intimate, entwined, controllable. In foregrounding what makes so special, our study holds implications better understanding intersecting role both marketplace consumers’ memorialisation practices, also addressing underexplored practice consumption.