If something were to happen to 28-year-old Kyle Sherwood, he already knows his fiancée and his father will probably fight over who gets to keep the tattoo on his leg. This particular tattoo, on Kyle's right leg, is a picture of three trocars – embalming tools used by morticians to drain body fluids and organs – with the initials of Kyle, his father and his grandfather beside each one.

Kyle is a third-generation mortician in the Cleveland, Ohio area – and because he and his father Michael have developed a process for preserving the tattoos of the deceased, the argument Kyle jokingly predicts isn't so far-fetched.

For about two years, Michael and Kyle's business, Save My Ink Forever, has been preserving tattoos for loved ones across the country, using the process, a tightly-held secret, they developed. In the Netherlands, the Walls and Skin tattoo shop also preserves tattoos, though Save My Ink Forever claims to be the only place in the US for this service. Though it might seem grim, Kyle says all they're doing is preserving art to keep someone's memory alive – just like many other, more common funeral practices that people accept as normal.

'Think about what cremation is,' Kyle tells DailyMail.com. 'You're lighting a person on fire and then keeping their ashes in a jar, if you break it down like that. But you don't think of it that way. You think of it as symbolic. Symbolism of who the person was… Really it's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of how you look at it.'

Father and son morticians, Michael (right) and Kyle (left) Sherwood, have developed a process to preserve the tattoos of dead people. They started a company called Save My Ink Forever and have been preserving tattoos for about the last two years. They are pictured at the funeral home where they work in the Cleveland, Ohio area

It took about two years to develop the tattoo preservation process, which was inspired by a conversation Kyle and Michael had with some friends over drinks. They received a few skin donations they used to help them develop the process, which they keep highly secret. One of Save My Ink Forever's preserved tattoos is pictured before it is framed and shipped back to the family

One tattoo Save My Ink Forever preserved was one from a young, active duty member of the military who was killed in combat. Kyle explains that they were able to save the soldier's tattoo – the details of which he is keeping anonymous for the privacy of the family.

'That was nice to be able to give to the family, almost as if they were then able to say goodbye because even though they weren't seeing him, they knew that that was him,' Kyle says. 'So for me, that was nice to be able to do. And we're here to give people closure as well as a great memorialization of the person, because that tattoo tells a story that nobody can take away from that person.'

It took about two years to develop the tattoo preservation process after Kyle and his father were inspired by a conversation they had with friends over drinks. One friend wondered aloud if he would be able to save his tattoo after he died, which prompted Kyle and Michael to start thinking about the possibilities.

'If you're looking at the funeral industry, there's definitely a need for this, or a calling for this. We kind of got the ball rolling from there, where we developed it and put it to a practical use.'

Kyle has his own tattoo (pictured) that he suspects his father and fiancée will want preserved if anything were to happen to him. The tattoo, on his right leg, is a picture of three trocars – embalming tools used by morticians to drain body fluids and organs – with the initials of Kyle, his father and his grandfather (all morticians) beside each one

They were able to get a few skin donations as they explored the process, including from a man who was getting a tummy tuck.

'Before he got a tummy tuck, he got a tattoo on the area that he knew the skin was going to be removed. So – as gruesome as it sounds – when he got his tummy tuck, he then said, well here you go, you can have the tattoo that I got for this purpose,' Kyle says.

'It was trial and error,' he adds. 'But we do have somewhat of a background when it comes to preserving tissue.'

When they first developed their process, Kyle and Michael were a part of an organization called the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art (NAPSA), which also went by the name Save My Ink (not to be confused with Save My Ink Forever). NAPSA, however, was essentially just selling tattoo insurance policies for people who wanted to have their tattoos preserved after their death, almost like a life insurance policy.

'But the whole thing with that is, a lot of people are younger and they're not going to be paying for the next 50 years into this policy, because there wasn't a cap on it or anything like that,' Kyle says. 'So when they went out of business – because they weren't selling these insurance policies – we were still with this.'

He and his father then decided to make a separate company, where tattoo preservation is available for people on an at-need basis. People can also make a pre-need contract with a funeral home and start paying for their tattoo to be preserved in payments ahead of time so their families don't have to pay a lump sum for the process.

When a person dies, his or her family contacts Save My Ink Forever about having their loved one's tattoo preserved. The company sends a tattoo removal kit and instructional materials to the family's funeral director. Pictured are the tools funeral directors and embalmers use to remove tattoos before sending them to Save My Ink Forever for preservation

Kyle says ideally a tattoo will be removed within three to four days after the person has passed away, but if the body has been embalmed, that gives them a bit more time. Pictured is a trocar, an embalming tool, which inspired the tattoo on Kyle's right shin

Either way, when a person dies, his or her family contacts Save My Ink Forever about having the tattoo preserved; the company then gets in touch with the funeral home to explain the process. The tattoo-preserving company then ships a removal kit and sends instructional videos on how to remove the tattoo to the funeral director, if the funeral home isn't already one of the 53 Save My Ink Forever 'preferred providers' in 11 US states. Save My Ink Forever promises to work with anyone, but the 'preferred providers' are just the funeral homes who are publicly recognized for working with Save My Ink Forever.

Think about what cremation is. You're lighting a person on fire and then keeping their ashes in a jar, if you break it down like that. But you don't think of it that way. You think of it as symbolic. Symbolism of who the person was… Really it's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of how you look at it. Kyle Sherwood

'A lot of funeral directors obviously haven't dealt with us before or dealt with this type of procedure. But a lot of directors are more than willing to work with us, because bottom line, they're there to serve the family and make the family happy.'

There are also forms for the family fill out and go over with the funeral director, giving permission to excise tissue from their loved one's body and making sure there isn't any confusion about what tattoo should be removed.

Once the correct tattoo is removed, the embalmer places the tattoo in the Save My Ink Forever kit with a dry preservative that keeps the tattoo safe until it is shipped to the company in Ohio, which makes it possible for the company to preserve tattoos of people in all 50 states.

'When the tattoo is removed, it's very superficial because you're just taking the skin,' Kyle says. 'You're not taking any muscle or anything like that because obviously in this instance, we're only using the skin… So as far as treating that area goes, as an embalmer, it's very easy to treat because there are fluids and chemicals that we can use to cauterize an area.

'But also the tattoo can be removed after visitation. So embalming can take place and the tattoo can still be removed after. So it doesn't affect visitation or viewing at all.'

Before the tattoo can be removed, the family has to fill out forms to give the funeral director permission to excise tissue from their loved one's body and to make sure the funeral director removes the correct tattoo for preservation. Pictured is a tattoo that Save My Ink Forever has preserved and framed

Once the correct tattoo is removed, the embalmer puts it in a dry preservative and ships it to Save My Ink Forever, where the tattoo is actually preserved. The secret process takes about three to four months, Kyle says. Pictured is a tattoo preserved by Save My Ink Forever

Kyle says ideally a tattoo will be removed within three to four days after the person has passed away, but if the body has been embalmed, that gives them a bit more time. Once Save My Ink Forever gets the tattoo in the mail, the actual preservation takes about three to four months and leaves the tattoo fairly thin, with only the dermis and epidermis left. However, they refuse to reveal anything about the process itself.

'You don't know the recipe for Coke,' Kyle says. 'It's just one of those things where we just, of course, want to keep it under wraps.'

The thing is, we know we're not for everyone. But we're not trying to be for everyone. It's something that we want to offer people as a comfort… You're not hurting anybody. Often times you're displaying it in the privacy of your own home. And ultimately it's you remembering your loved one. So who has the right to tell you how to do that? Kyle Sherwood, Save My Ink Forever

From there, they have the tattoo matched to a custom frame with UV glass and get it shipped back to the family. The entire process – including preservation, all the shipping to and from anywhere in the country and the custom frame with UV glass – costs $1,599 for a tattoo that is five inches by five inches. Every additional inch is another $100 added to the cost.

'It's all up to archival standards,' Kyle says. 'We're really treating it like a museum piece… It could be cheaper I suppose, but then you're kind of defeating the purpose if you're just putting it in a Dollar General frame. Because we want it to last so we want to put it in something quality to ensure that it lasts.'

The company has a few reservations about types of tattoos: they won't preserve tattoos from the face or genitals and the tattoo being preserved must be professionally done. Tattoos made at home or in jail won't stand up to the preservation process and tattoos from the face or genitals just aren't the kind of thing Save My Ink Forever wants to be known for.

'When we're doing this, we want it to maintain the integrity,' Kyle says. 'This is for the purpose of art. This is for the purpose of memorializing a loved one. This isn't trying to be some freak show, circus act thing. And so we felt that those two areas being preserved would be something that incorporated what we don't want.'

What they do want, Kyle says, is to help people memorialize their loved ones in a deeper, more meaningful way than conventional mementos and services can give.

'I truthfully believe that being able to see imagery of something that your loved one was passionate about means a lot more than a casket or an urn. If you think about when people do a casket or they do an urn, if [the person] rode motorcycles, they try to put a motorcycle on the urn. So okay, what is more meaningful? An urn that has a mocked motorcycle that was just a random sticker art off the wall that they just slapped on this urn, versus having the actual imagery that your loved one put on [themselves] that means so much to them. I mean, how do you really top that?'

After it is preserved, Save My Ink Forever matches a tattoo to a custom frame with archival-standard UV glass. For a tattoo that is five inches by five inches, the entire process costs $1,599, including preservation, shipping and the custom frame. With each added inch, the cost increases by $100

Save My Ink Forever does about 100 preservations a year, Kyle says. 'It's becoming more popular,' he says. 'It's definitely starting to catch on more. It was slow at first… But it is growing and I think as times goes, it's only going to continue to become more popular. Just as tattoos are becoming more popular and it's becoming less and less of a social taboo'

Save My Ink Forever does about 100 preservations a year and the service is becoming more popular, Kyle says, even though they don't advertise. Instead, the company sets up booths at funeral conventions and tattoo conventions and reaches out to funeral homes to let them know about their services.

'It's becoming more popular,' he says. 'It's definitely starting to catch on more. It was slow at first… But it is growing and I think as times goes, it's only going to continue to become more popular. Just as tattoos are becoming more popular and it's becoming less and less of a social taboo.'

He adds: 'It's just one of those things where I can only hope that things continue to move in the right direction and I truthfully think it will. If you think about it, ten years ago, for the most part, cremation was taboo and now, in some states, it's a 75per cent cremation rate. So hopefully with less stigma around tattoos, more and more people will accept the idea of having your tattoo preserved.'

Elizabeth Lynch, 20, from Garfield Heights, Ohio doesn't personally have a preserved tattoo, but when her aunt unexpectedly died of cancer about two years ago, Lynch's uncle decided to get his wife's dolphin tattoo from her calf preserved.

Lynch says at first she was alarmed by the preserved tattoo, but she came to appreciate the significance of it after talking with her uncle, who keeps the framed tattoo in his bedroom.

'He said that you can have ashes of someone or you can have a grave spot, but there's nothing like seeing something that they actually had on them every single day,' Lynch says. 'Obviously, that meant a lot to me.

'At first it was kind of weird because it was like, oh, that's her skin, but it's so special, especially because she died so suddenly. It's like the last thing they really have of her. And when she died, it really hurt everyone in our family and no one's even close to over it. I guess it's just something more personal and it's like she's there, almost. I don't even know how to explain it.'

Kyle says all Save My Ink Forever is doing is preserving art to keep someone's memory alive – just like many other, more common funeral practices. 'Think about what cremation is,' Kyle says. 'You're lighting a person on fire and then keeping their ashes in a jar, if you break it down like that. But you don't think of it that way… It's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of how you look at it.' Kyle and his father are pictured at the funeral home where they work

Save My Ink Forever has gotten the best responses from Texas and California, Kyle says - though he realizes the process might not exactly have universal appeal.

'The thing is, we know we're not for everyone. But we're not trying to be for everyone. It's something that we want to offer people as a comfort… You're not hurting anybody. Often times you're displaying it in the privacy of your own home. And ultimately it's you remembering your loved one. So who has the right to tell you how to do that?'

Besides, Kyle says, it's difficult to understand the desire to preserve a tattoo if you've never had a tattoo yourself.

'If you don't have tattoos, I don't necessarily expect you to understand why someone would want a tattoo [preserved], because you haven't experienced the fact that you can actually have feelings for your own tattoos... If you think about it, you're getting a tattoo and you've got it for a lifetime. We're not here a long time, but it is the longest thing that we know.'

For Kyle, it's no question that at least his leg tattoo is going to be kept by either his father or his fiancée. Kyle's fiancée, however, doesn't want to leave any of her tattoos behind if something were to happen to her.

'She doesn't like the idea of it being done to her, but she wants one,' Kyle chuckles. 'I don't know. It's kind of an oxymoron… but that's what she wants. She wants mine.'