15 Tricks Morticians Use

From Redditor /u/TheModernMortician:

Use 1-ply, non-decorated toilet paper and super glue for skin slip or tiny puncture holes on an arm or neck. Place a torn piece of 1-ply on the wound, big enough to cover and connect with good tissue. Apply one drop of super glue at a time, letting the liquid spread. Smooth the 1-ply over the wound and flatten it with tweezers before the glue sets. Do not use too much glue.

Allow it to dry. Apply cosmetics over it!

From Redditor /u/woody1594:

We buy brown couch stuffing cotton. This cotton does not absorb water as much as rolled cotton. It works well for building up a mouth before embalming. Aron Alpha (a quick-drying adhesive) makes it rock hard if you put it on it. This works great as a plug for trachea tube holes and bullet holes.

From Redditor /u/Bamacpl:

I use Poligrip denture adhesive gel to set the skullcap after an autopsy. It fills the gap well, unlike super glue. I also use a mix with great results on jaundice. Mix pre-injection chemicals with four Alka-Seltzer tabs in one gallon, then inject against closed drainage. Let it sit fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on severity. Mix your jaundice fluid and inject after opening the vein. This removes most of the yellow.

From a former Redditor:

With a fresh corpse, we embalm the body. We pack the nose and mouth with gauze and wire the mouth shut to stop any purge from leaking. A hard plastic plug goes in the anus and/or vagina to keep gas or fluids from escaping. The embalming fluid slows decay and keeps the body fresh for viewing and the funeral. A fresh corpse does not smell bad. Only when bowels empty or gas escapes does it smell truly awful.

If you ask about a funeral for a rotting corpse, we cannot do anything. I cannot reverse decay; I can only slow it down. We do not present heavily decomposed bodies in an open casket. At my funeral home, we pour cavity fluid, lime powder, and kitty litter into the body bag with the body. The cavity fluid kills fungus and bacteria. Lime controls the smell. Kitty litter soaks up extra moisture. We seal the bag, put it in another bag, and glue the zipper shut. Then, we put it in a hermetically sealed casket for the funeral. You do not want a grieving family to smell decaying remains. In mortician school, we studied cases where other funeral homes messed up, putting a leaky body in a casket and ruining families forever. That is a lawsuit you do not want. Your reputation gets ruined.

I never went to a funeral home without flowers, potpourri, and scented candles. The smell of roses and lilies stays with me, tied to caskets and funeral homes.

From Redditor /u/don't look forward:

I use a 50/50 mix of Dodge's Restorative and Rectifiant in a squirt bottle. This cleans the face and removes the white, cheesy skin. It also cleans dirt and grime from hands well. Squirt some on and scrub with a firm, bristled brush. It also cleans ink off after taking fingerprints.

The Modern Mortician, or /u/TheModernMorticianon Reddit, wrote on her blog:

A senior mortician said running a tank of condensed milk through the circulatory system to flush blood before embalming helps remove the yellow pallor caused by jaundice.

After the strawberry milk mixture drained from the man’s system, the embalming machine tank filled with standard embalming fluid and correct water proportions. Then I was excused from the room to finish my regular assistant jobs.

I saw the deceased man later, before they dressed him and put cosmetics on his face. The Eagle Brand Milk worked, but only a little. They still used a lot of color-concealing makeup on his exposed hands and wrists, which held the strange yellow tint.

From Redditor /u/Tejnin:

The decomposed guy was found after rotting in his garage for three weeks in summer. Bugs covered him; his skin was black and green, and flesh sloshed off the bone. I could not help that case; they cremated him. The decapitation was fine because he went to labs, and anatomy students dissected him. Our job was to put him back together. He dried out so much we had to soak the skin and build new eyes, lips, and ears. We used wax and makeup to put his face back on. That was cooler than gross. I accidentally stabbed myself with the suture needle trying to pass through the "beef jerky" flesh. That scared me, but luckily, he was embalmed, so there was no disease!

From Redditor /u/Tejnin:

Clean it out. Apply a powder that dries it, then let it sit. When dry, inject it through the arteries or a needle into the skin to kill bacteria. Then, chemicals stop skin from sloshing and breaking. Wax restores holes and damaged features. Airbrush covers well. It is a long process.

From Redditor /u/kricket3235:

The best base for facial reconstruction is good embalming. For restorative work, you need solid, firm, dry tissues. So, restorative work starts before you pick up any wax.

Wax serves facial reconstruction; clay is for practice, I understand. Mortuary waxes vary from firm to soft, each with a specific use. Firm wax fills large facial gaps. It also creates basic feature shapes. We use pictures for nose features. For paired features like ears or eyes, we use the existing one if the other is missing. For instance, if the left eye is damaged but the right is fine, we reference the right eye plus pictures. Creating the basic shape takes much time. Refining details takes even more time. We use many tools, similar to sculpting tools, to finish. After molding, we move to cosmetics. Mortuary cosmetics help shade and color, making a big change. This is its own art.

From Redditor /u/Tejnin:

Telling the family you cannot do more for the case is heartbreaking. Compression reduces swelling, and we can 'iron' a face to remove wrinkles, but it will not look the same. I try hard, but we cannot change a body. We seal organs in a bag with cavity fluid and put it back in. Your loved one stays whole.

From Redditor /u/Tejnin:

When you die, blood settles due to gravity, causing swelling... I saw a man whose face swelled from blood on one side and dried completely on the other.

From Redditor /u/happenstanced:

Sprinkling baby powder inside an infant casket or on the interior, plus using baby lotion, is a thoughtful gesture that helps a lot.

From Redditor /u/kricket3225:

We usually do this ourselves or have another licensed embalmer perform it.

Makeup artists miss that mortuary cosmetics differ from regular 'live person' makeup. You can do perfect winged eyeliner or contouring, but you likely won't do that on a deceased person, even if they wore that look often. Different techniques, products, and methods exist for mortuary makeup. Entire makeup lines exist just for the dead; you never use them on yourself.

Some tasks are simple for a regular makeup artist. Others require specific knowledge or experience. For example, a family might give us their loved one's favorite lipstick shade, but we do not just apply it directly. We mix it into wax needing application. Or we use a specific brush to spread it. We might use a chemical to soften it and apply it easier. We might need to manage dehydration around the lips.

Many mortuary cosmetic tasks connect with other restorative work. Do you need to rebuild a nose after trauma? Is the person jaundiced with yellow skin? Can you correct that? Does massive bruising require covering? Normal makeup rules for living people do not apply.

Redditor /u/woody1594:

We use masking tape. It keeps them together without leaving a mark. I used wet Webril, but leaving it too long bleaches some. This is also a great trick if hands float: tie a gown to the arm block, cover the hands, then tie it to another arm block.

From a former Redditor:

The tie the shirt to the sock method makes it lay flat.