Memorial tattoo: Honoring my late wife Marleen Reintjens

Hello my name is Marc and I lost my wife in 2020 at the age of 39 leaving behind our son (at the time 4y old) and our daughter (7y old at the time). There was no illness or underlying condition just one moment we are putting clean laundry away and that is the last time we ever spoke.

We were together for almost 20 years, married for 15 of them and at the snap of your fingers my partner for life was gone...

Since then, I’ve raised our children with complete honesty. No sugarcoating, no fairy tales. If we didn’t know the answer, we looked it up together. If something hurt, we said it out loud. We lived like that — open, raw, real.

In September 2023, I started to honor that love and loss in a permanent way: through a memorial tattoo.

I dont believe in names and dates as it sometimes doesnt do justice however this is strictly my perspective.

Its not about just a tattoo as pretty much everyone has them. All the outline and shading in all the work that was done contained ashes of my wife, for me it is a form of working through the tragedy.

It’s about anchoring something I’ve carried for years — the grief, the gratitude, the weight, and the love — into something physical. A tribute not only to her, but to the journey we’ve walked together as a family since.

Due to ongoing health issues and limited income, I can’t cover the full cost. The tattoo itself has not been worked on for over a year now as I need to work through the grief however for me the tattoo would help me in that regard. I’ve found an artist who understands what this means to me and can translate that into something beautiful and powerful. The cost covers the design, the sessions, and a small amount of travel.

If you feel moved to help, thank you. Even sharing this would mean a lot.

Some things can’t be fixed. But they can be honored.