- Back in 2019 when I was in Phoenix, filming with embalmer and
friend of the channel, Monica Torres, we said this, - If you wanna see us go through
the process of embalming, how many likes do we need? - What did I say on the table? A 100,000 likes.
(bell dinging) Okay, I said a 100,000. Let's make it 150,000.
(bell dinging) 'cause this is not something I wanna do. (relaxing music) - I see all your comments. Caitlin. You said you were gonna get
embalmed like two years ago. What gives? What happened? Oh, I don't know, Janice. Ever heard of a little
something called the pandemic? Huh? But I am a woman of my word. You gave us those likes and here I am, a vaxxed queen, ready to hold up my end of
the bargain and get embalmed. Well, fake embalmed. Not real embalmed. You can't embalm a living
person on YouTube. C'mon. That's only for my Patreon. Kidding. I'm kidding. I got jokes. (angelic ahh) - Hi, Monica. - Hi, Caitlin. - We're back, baby. How was your pandemic? - We survived. - Exactly. I am here today
for Monica to embalm me. Now everybody thinks
that I hate embalming. - Well, some people. - Not true, internet. I think that embalming can
serve a very useful purpose. Is it overused by the
American funeral system? Yes. But there are certain
situations, for example, a badly decomposed body, which we've talked about with
you before on this channel, The body has to travel long distances or it's a long period of
time after the person died before they can have a viewing. - Such as what we experienced
during the pandemic. It's an option. - It's an option. Thank you. - So, usually, I don't get
to interview my clients. - The corpses aren't
speaking up? I hope not. - But in this instance, we're gonna interview
Caitlin on the red sofa and we're gonna find out
just exactly how she died so that we can customize her embalming. - So let's say that I am a young person who has died of cancer. So I'm not autopsied, but my family would like to see me looking a little rejuvenated after a difficult path to my death. So what chemicals for the
embalming would you recommend? - Why don't we start with
cosmetizing from the inside out by using a dye? - Interesting. - So this is a dye concentrate. So this goes in the embalming fluid? - It does. And it's formaldehyde free. - Does it depend on my
complexion how much of this dye you put into the tank? - Absolutely. It depends
on your complexion. It depends on your ethnicity.
And a lot of other factors. - For embalming use only.
Keep away from children. I should say so. - So we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna plump you back up with a product called Restoratone. - So, Restoratone is a Humectant. What does a Humectant do
in the embalming process? - It's going to restore a lot of the fluid that was lost during the dying process. - Okay. So it's a lotion for inside. - Exactly. - So this is arterial fluid. This is the stuff, this is what makes an embalming embalming. Would you say? - I would agree. Absolutely. That's the bad mama jama. - So what does 28 index arterial mean? - What it really means is
the strength of the fluid. When someone has passed, due to cancer, a higher strength of fluid is definitely recommended and needed. - Which means more formaldehyde. - More formaldehyde. - Cranked up formaldehyde. - Yes. - You would pair this with
the Humectant and the dye and those together would
be what was in your tank. - Absolutely. Along with some other co-inject chemicals. Co-inject chemicals are the vehicles that move the arterial and the
Humectant through the body. - Okay. So kind of the vehicles
that they all climb into and drive through your arteries. - That's right. To the slab. We go. - Wuh wuh. (relaxing music) How long is this entire
process gonna take, start to finish? - That's a really good question. I think that most people
have that question. Every person's death is different. So every embalming is different. Some people can take maybe
a half hour to an hour and some people can take days. So right now what we're doing is we're bathing Caitlin's body and breaking up all the rigor mortis that may have set in after death. - Hey, let me do my
rigor mortis impression. - Yeah, do your rigor mortis. Perfect. Many times when people die, they will come into the funeral home and they still are in a
state of rigor mortis. Part of the embalming process is actually massaging the
hands, the arms, the legs, and all the different parts of the body to break up the rigor mortis. And this is how I do it. Kind of like a massage. - For me, it's exactly like a massage. I'm not gonna lie. This
is so relaxing and nice. I'm having a great time. (relaxing music) - We've completed that
disinfecting process. And now we're going to disinfect the body from the inside out. Which is by internally embalming
the body with formaldehyde. - Warning. For those of you non-needle
and scalpel fans, this may get a little scalpel-ly. So at this point we have to
open my artery and open my vein to both drain the blood out of my body and open an artery to replace my blood with this tank of fluid behind me. Corpse explains embalming to you. - Right now, what I'm doing
is I'm preparing my tools, my surgical scissors, and this right here is called a hemostat. And this is what I'm gonna be clamping
down her artery with. And I have a couple of aneurysm hooks, that I will be lifting
up the arteries with, and a drain tube. This is like a little pump that will the blood out of the vein. Firstly, what I will do
is I will take my scalpel and create an incision
right on her collarbone. About a one inch incision right here so that I can have access
to her carotid artery. - This is a much more
confronting experience than climbing in your own coffin. The scalpel to the carotid artery is like the most confronting
death thing I've done. And I've put myself in a lot
of death confronting situations in my day. - You really have. So, here we are. This is the arterial tube that we're going to insert
into Caitlin's carotid artery. And once that's inserted into her artery, I'm going to clamp it off, just
like this, with my hemostat and that'll hold it in place
through the embalming process. Now that we've prepared the chemicals and Caitlin is disinfected and bathed, I'm gonna go ahead, insert this arterial tube
into her carotid artery. This machine is set up to
push the preservative fluid through her arteries and out her veins. So as this arterial fluid
is going into her arteries, in through her heart, all the way down to her arms, her legs, her fingers and her toes. The blood that is in the
body, bacteria-rich blood, is coming out. And that's where the real
preservation happens. - The preservation happens
because the embalming fluid that is now going into my arteries is fixing the proteins to make
them so they don't decompose the way they normally would. - Exactly. Formaldehyde
coagulates protein. - That's kind of a mortuary
school 101, it's like, embalming coagulates protein. - Yeah. In this case, where Caitlin
has passed away from cancer, most likely, if there are no
blockages in her arteries, the process should take
anywhere from one to two hours. While the embalming fluid
is moving through the body, the embalmer is actively
massaging the body, the feet, the hands, the arms,
the face, the shoulders, every part of the body that we can access. We're going to be stimulating those areas to push the blood out and encourage the preservative
into the capillaries. And you can see right here
that I'm pushing the blood towards the heart. So when we massage, we
massage towards the heart. Say that, you know, her
hand isn't getting embalmed and the rest of her arm is, that massage is really
gonna help facilitate the movement of the blood
and the fluid in there. So far, I give two stars
to the formaldehyde coursing through my body, 9.5 stars to the massage element. Extremely positive experience. - Have you seen my new trocar? - I have not seen your new trocar. I'm about to see it in
the most intense way. Oh my God. It's golden. I have never seen a golden
trocar in all my life. Oh wow. It's, only you would have a personally
embossed golden trocar. Perhaps the most misunderstood and potentially difficult
part for the family to hear about embalming is what goes on here with the trocar and the cavity. - I agree. I, and I don't know if it's necessarily that families have a difficult
time understanding it, but funeral directors in general, I think, have a hard time talking
about it with families. When I talk to families about cavity work, I most often reference plastic surgery and liposuction because this is a technique that is very, very similar to liposuction. However, instead of liposuctioning fat, we're suctioning the
actual visceral organs. For sake of ease, we're going to insert the
trocar into Caitlin's abdomen and point straight towards her right ear, puncturing the heart, through the diaphragm, and, begin to proceed with that process, back and forth, creating channels through
all of her organs. And you can see that I'm
creating a fan motion. As I'm moving the trocar
in and out of her body, there is a suction that's going on and all of the fluid, bacteria-rich blood, any kind of ickies, as
I like to call them, are being removed. Once I've done the upper half of her body, and I feel like it's
sufficiently been channeled, I will remove the trocar, come back through the same opening, head straight down towards her bladder, dip two inches down and began to suction any urine that's left over in her
bladder after death. After I've relieved her bladder, I will go through and attack the intestines, puncturing them as much as I can to create channels for
the embalming preservative to creep in and do its job. - I don't know that I've ever pictured myself being trocared before. But I certainly did right then. - I do think it is really important. Like, even though it is
an invasive procedure, it is one of the most important things that we can do to preserve
the body for long term. - The reason that I always argue that it's overused is because
grandma who died yesterday and is having an immediate viewing maybe does not need the
full cavity treatment. And so, to have every single body in the funeral home be
embalmed in this, you know, start to finish process,
is maybe excessive. But, when you look at what this
kind of work actually does, it does have such a specific function. - This is another really fabulous, magical tool that I really love. And this is called an evolution injector. And, this tool is spectacular because in the old days they had gravity bongs that
they would hold up and you know, they'd use gravity to inject the fluid. And now we have these amazing tools that our embalming chemical
companies make for us. So what we do, is we attach
our cavity fluid right here, and it just twists
right on to this device. And we turn it upside down. Once I've attached my
cavity fluid onto my device, I'm gonna go straight
through the channels, the same opening, and release the fluid into the organs, into the heart, into the lungs. - So embalmers in the crowd may wonder why we haven't talked
about setting the features. Which is closing my eyes and my mouth and giving me a less
obviously dead appearance. But you don't do that at the beginning of the embalming process. - I think it's important to remember that embalming, besides being
a science, is also an art. And so every artist creates
art a little differently. And I don't set features in the beginning, like most embalmers. I will however, close the eyes and, oftentimes, I will close the mouth. Now there are several different
ways to close the mouth. My preferred method is a muscular suture. Be dead. Which I will insert my needle through the nostril, across the septum, down the nostril, down underneath Caitlin's lip, across the bottom, back up, up the nostril. And I'll tie a nice little bow right here and insert it into her nostril, to be hidden forever. - So you may not realize that many embalmed bodies
have a little nose present. - Yes. There's a little bow
in there on many of them. Secondly, I would say,
you know, most embalmers, many embalmers use eye caps. I prefer not to use eye caps. I think it looks more natural to offer a hypodermic injection with what we call Feature Builder. And it's just that. It's building the feature and it'll also keep her eye closed. And it looks a little more
natural than an eye cap. (relaxing music) - Last, but certainly not least, your specialty is restorative work. And the face is sort of the
reason the family is there. So, if I had some sunken features, what would you go about doing to, I guess, plump me and preen me? - A lot of times, the embalming process, if it's gone without fault, it will restore the body very nicely. And there's very little that's
needed to be done after, as far as cosmetics. However, some people
who have suffered from, like we talked about before, organ failure or severe trauma, may need some restorative work. And that's where I use
hypodermic injection techniques to really build the features to a rejuvenated appearance. - So we're gonna leave
the safety on the needle. First for you needle
phobes. You're welcome. And then also, so you can actually get in there more and show what you would be doing. - Absolutely. Yes. So what I'll do is I'll
typically go in right up the nose and, keep in mind, this is. - What's in here? When you're doing this? - This is Feature Builder. Yes. - So what is Feature Builder? - Feature Builder is a
preservative product that we use that coagulates once it is
delivered into the tissue itself. So it will plump the tissue. - So it's like a Juvederm, or like. - It's exactly. It's like Juvederm or
Sculptra, any of those. Yes. Absolutely. - All right. Hit me. I'm ready for my, I'm ready to get them. - Ready for your Botox? - I'm ready to get Instagram face. - Okay. So what I do, is I'll go
straight in through the nose and right up the middle of her nose, come up through the glabella, and create a fan-like technique. After that, I will come straight
down right into the cheek on each side and plump her cheeks, just a little bit. Less is more. Then I'll come down to the lips, insert my needle very, very slowly and gently, plump her lips, top and bottom. And who doesn't want a nice plump chin? Nowadays, it's getting really
popular for plastic surgeons to create a nice jaw line. So I've gone so far as
to create a jaw line for men and women. Obviously women are a little softer and men are a little bit more square. Finally, I always think it's important to make sure to preserve
and rejuvenate the ears. So I will always go right into
the ear lobe and up the ear and preserve this area. And that's always nice in case the family wants
to add earrings later on. And at this point you're
embalmed, Caitlin. How do you feel? - That was interesting. I feel like this may be
the final frontier of me, short of like climbing
in an aquamation machine and lying there, I think this is sort of my final frontier of facing my own mortality. - Well, I'm glad that I
could walk you to that line here in the Death Education Studio here that Cold Hands hosts. - I wouldn't do with anyone,
but you. I promise you. If you want me to come
back to Monica's studio to talk about unembalmed bodies and how it's the future
of the funeral industry. And how if a family
doesn't want embalming, there's still all sorts of things that you can do to prepare
the body without chemicals. Then we need, how many likes? - I don't know. 174? - 170. I like that kind of energy. 174,000 likes is the exact number we need
for me to come back to Phoenix, into the loving arms of Monica Torres. - Let's get her back, y'all. - Put my body in a train and
bring me back to Phoenix. - Well, you're embalmed now, so we can ship you around the
US like President Lincoln. - All right. Where am I? What are my hands doing? For the casket. - Okay. So, left hand placed gently over right. Your nails look great by the way. - Thank you. All right. I'm ready for my closeup. Send in the family. This video was made
with generous donations from death enthusiasts, just like you. I'm going to a hotel where I film three videos. I'm here. Look. We're high vibes. We're happy to be here. I think I can do it. Think about it. So, for someone who was
already as pale as a corpse. In my real life, how much
dye would you put in? - Well, I like to say I
put a little splash in, but if we're gonna get technical, we'd put about half an ounce. - So I was just being de-stinkafied. - You were being de-stinkafied. Absolutely. - And in home funerals,
they use a lot of essential. I feel like I'm just talking
to the camera like normal, but you're on this embalming table. You don't have any needles
by my eye right now, right? Okay. I was gonna open 'em and I'm, nope. Wait a second. Yes, you do. You're trying to trick me. - Yep. - All right, if you must, we can do some more massage
for B-roll purposes. Monica. - We need to do that. - I'm a dead person. I need my full embalming experience. We talked today about,
is this a terrible angle? Do I look weak? This is like the most unattractive angle. - It's like right in your chin. - What am I doing? - You're embalmed so well that you rival some of those mummies. - Yeah, exactly. I'm an American mummy. I'm an American mummy
ready to go the distance. I've been flawlessly embalmed and I will be around for 800 years now. American mummy!
