Morbid Tiles
5 June 2008 22:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skonen_bladesI set up four long sticks in the form of a pyramid around the suitcase with the camera at the apex, pointing straight down. It gave a perfect bird’s eyes top-down view of the body. After that, the corpse was taken out, identified if possible, and sent to processing.
We got a few every month. Frozen people all curled up in suitcases.
As a criminal claims investigator, I was the one on the scene first. I needed to open the suitcase and take photographs for records and evidence to be used in the inevitable investigation.
I kept asking for the smaller airlines to heat their baggage compartments but they never listened. There was always some stowaway that was stupid, flexible and desperate enough to squeeze into a suitcase and do their best to remain still. Like a game of hide and seek.
The long flight, the lack of air, and the subzero temperatures killed them all.
No matter how much literature we put out amongst the populace about the dangers into the churches and orphanages of the district, they still tried to sneak on. They either couldn’t read or didn’t believe the words. They thought we were lying and just trying to keep them from paradise.
In the mortuary investigation room, before anyone knew who the person actually was, the suitcase people were like stillborn creatures to us; new to the world, fetal, and a complete mystery. We were solemn. It didn’t help that most of the people stupid and limber enough to attempt it were young.
Lately, to avoid the personal distress and the feeling of hopelessness that was creeping into my life, I’d used those pictures as art.
I was making tiles. Rectangular ceramic tiles with these photographs of the frozen bodies crammed into the confines of the straight lines. They fit perfectly. Contorted like yoga teachers, eyes wide open or squeezed shut and tinged with frost.
Blues and purples, shiny skin, cold and hard to the touch. Just like the ceramic.
I’ve tiled my own bathroom with pictures of these curled-up youths shellaqued onto the tiles. It’s an example of what can be done with my home-made tiles for prospective buyers. They also make good coasters.
So far, business is slow but I have my fingers crossed.
tags
We got a few every month. Frozen people all curled up in suitcases.
As a criminal claims investigator, I was the one on the scene first. I needed to open the suitcase and take photographs for records and evidence to be used in the inevitable investigation.
I kept asking for the smaller airlines to heat their baggage compartments but they never listened. There was always some stowaway that was stupid, flexible and desperate enough to squeeze into a suitcase and do their best to remain still. Like a game of hide and seek.
The long flight, the lack of air, and the subzero temperatures killed them all.
No matter how much literature we put out amongst the populace about the dangers into the churches and orphanages of the district, they still tried to sneak on. They either couldn’t read or didn’t believe the words. They thought we were lying and just trying to keep them from paradise.
In the mortuary investigation room, before anyone knew who the person actually was, the suitcase people were like stillborn creatures to us; new to the world, fetal, and a complete mystery. We were solemn. It didn’t help that most of the people stupid and limber enough to attempt it were young.
Lately, to avoid the personal distress and the feeling of hopelessness that was creeping into my life, I’d used those pictures as art.
I was making tiles. Rectangular ceramic tiles with these photographs of the frozen bodies crammed into the confines of the straight lines. They fit perfectly. Contorted like yoga teachers, eyes wide open or squeezed shut and tinged with frost.
Blues and purples, shiny skin, cold and hard to the touch. Just like the ceramic.
I’ve tiled my own bathroom with pictures of these curled-up youths shellaqued onto the tiles. It’s an example of what can be done with my home-made tiles for prospective buyers. They also make good coasters.
So far, business is slow but I have my fingers crossed.
tags