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Christopher's
Ashes
Just
over a year ago Laurie had to put her cat Christopher —
who was more like a brother to her, she says — to sleep
due to cancer and kidney failure. He was one of the few sources
of happiness in her life and she was devastated to have to let
him go. With the help of Brian
Decker, she now has him by her side forever in the
form of a skin removal scarification with Christopher’s
ashes rubbed into it.
Laurie writes of her experience, which occurred September 29th,
2007 at 2pm, the one year anniversary of Christopher’s
passing, after having set up the apointment and gone through
a design process with Brian over the previous month.
The day of my appointment I happened to find Christopher’s
red collar with a bell on it. I wore through out my scarification
as well as my whole trip to New York.
September 29th rolled around and I arrived at the shop a little
early. Brian brought out the drawing and we looked over it again
— tears had welled up in my eyes the first time I saw
it. It wasn’t long before we headed into the room where
I would be spending the next couple of hours getting cut.
Brian was so nice and it was easy for me to feel comfortable
and relaxed in his chair. It’s not easy for me to feel
comfortable or relaxed around people I don’t know, but
for whatever reason I was with him. He began to tell me the
aftercare instructions before he started anything. Everything
there was very clean. He was pulling the tools he’d need
out of the autoclave as I was walking into the room. He asked
if I was nervous at all, and I said yes, but that I was more
excited than nervous.
He put the stencil on and began his beautiful work (my words,
not his). Here goes nothing. He started the first cut, and it
was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It hurt less
than the tattoo on my lower stomach. Parts of it even tickled,
and no, I am not kidding — Brian thought it was odd. After
a while the cat was done and when he was cleaning it up he placed
a paper towel on it and there was a bloody outline of the cat
which he decided to make dance. Again, I laughed. I loved it.
Brian is a great guy and I’m grateful that people like
him are in this world.
Next the name was cut, and after he was done with the name he
cleaned it off again and we rubbed Christopher’s ashes
in. That, from the whole experience, probably hurt the most.
This was one of the best things to happen to me in my life,
and meant and means so much to me. I can’t begin to put
it into words how amazing this whole thing was; something very
deep for me. I will cherish this forever. Thank you Brian! |
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The Infinite Cat Project
Presented by Mike Stanfill, Private Hand
Illustration,
Flash Animation,
Web Design
www.privatehand.com
©Mike Stanfill, 2006
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