Emily Chan
Have you ever wondered how bodies are prepared for funerals? Aside from dressing the deceased in an outfit picked out by the mourning family, embalmers are responsible for the many other aspects of preparing the dead for their final journey, from transporting the body to treating the remains to stall decomposition.
A TikTok account that goes by the handle @mccartneyfunerals is run by a family who own and work at funeral homes based in Brisbane, Australia. They take viewers behind the scenes of this rather morbid but very essential profession.
In one of their videos, a mortician named Tracy explains the purpose of stitching up the mouth of a dead person during the embalming process in response to a question left by one TikTok user in the comments section.
There is actually a good reason for suturing the mouth. A needle and thread are used to sew the mouth closed.
Without the sutures, the mouth will stay open, which isn’t appropriate for viewing during the funeral.
“[When] deceased, our muscles aren’t working anymore. Our jaw will just fall open, and that’s why you see dead bodies like that, because we have no muscles, and gravity just pulls it through,” said Tracy.
When done right, the stitches aren’t visible, and the mouth appears natural. Another way to keep the mouth closed is by gluing.
However, gluing does not look natural. Instead, it produces results that look “lumpy” and “awful.” After the sutures are made, there is no need to remove them once the funeral service is over.
Many TikTok users shared their thoughts on the suturing, and although some were all for it, the majority of commenters seemed to be against it.
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