Description: This book looks at changes to the ways Western culture memorialises the dead. Specifically, it considers the changing relationship between people and domestic animals. Rather than focusing on how these bonds have changed in day to day life, it examines these relationships by considering how, after death, these animals are remembered.
Review Quotes: Harris, an author and researcher working in the areas of religion, death, popular culture, and science fiction, analyzes the mourning rituals that exist between people and their domestic pets, particularly how the skin of humans and animals is used as a site of memorialization, through taxidermy and tattoos, after the death of an animal. She discusses the bond between humans and animals in the domestic setting, the history of tattooing as a cultural tradition and social trend, the concept of memorialization and how it relates to companion animals, taxidermy and its use in mourning, the links between taxidermy and tattoos, the composition and aesthetics of memorial tattoo design, and the links between online image sharing of tattooed animals and the trend toward animal influencers on social media.--Copyright 2019 "Portland, OR"