“He was a decent aul skin!” the man quipped about his recently deceased father.

Barry Whittaker from the Australian mining town of Mackay was very proud of the four large tattoos he had on his arms and his back.  When he found out he was dying from cancer he asked his son Carl to preserve them. 

“I thought his request a bit odd but that was his dying request so I did it for him.  After he died I contacted a taxidermist.  He agreed to remove and tan the skin.  After he treated it he gave me it back in four pieces for framing.

He was particularly proud of this tattoo,” he said, pointing to a framed image on his living room wall of an eagle entangled with a snake.

“I admit that reactions have been a bit mixed but I’m all in favour now.  If nothing else it preserves his memory.”