There are a lot of ways to preserve the legacies of loved ones, but a Saskatoon family has found a unique way to pay tribute.
Chris Wenzel’s body art is on display this weekend at the Vancouver Tattoo and Culture Show. He died in October after a nine-year battle with ulcerative colitis.
“The best years of my life was living beside my husband," Cheryl Wenzel told CTV News Vancouver. They have five boys together. Three of them were on the trip with Wenzel.
“My boys are always my number one supports,” she said of Chris Jr., Cody and James.
Before he died, Chris found a company in the United States called “Save My Ink Forever” that preserves body art. At his request, Wenzel had his skin preserved and framed.
“Through his art, his legacy will live on,” his wife said.
“It's just amazing to have his skin back with us,” said Cody, Chris’s son. “The way that it turned out is just amazing."
Two of the artists who tattooed his body, were also at the show and expressed amazement to see their work displayed like this.
“I did his thigh,” Clint Danroth said the artist who works in White Rock. "You see it at first and maybe think it's not what it is but, you know, it's emotional."
Ryan Halter from Steveston Tattoo told CTV News Vancouver he tattooed Chris’s hand shortly before he died.
“He was just a really great guy, always smiling and always getting his grind on with tattooing,” Halter said.
Wenzel is driving across Canada to another convention in Newfoundland. The road trip was one the entire family had been planning to do together.
"We didn't know we'd be going across Canada in this particular way, but we are and fulfilling what he wanted to do and our journey together as a family," she said.
But Wenzel told CTV News, "I know that he would be smiling down on everybody."
