Lisa Marie Presley brought tattoo artist to see late son Benjamin Keough’s body so she could get matching ink

Lisa Marie Presley got “matching” ink with her late son Benjamin Keough after his death.

In Presley’s posthumous memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” she opened up about her immense grief following her son’s death by suicide in 2020, which daughter Riley Keough also detailed in a new interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“She would say, ‘I’m going to die of a broken heart,’ and I think we felt that,” Riley, 35, told Winfrey. 

Presley’s grief was so crippling that she kept her late son’s body at her home for two months following his death — even inviting a tattoo artist over so that she could get a replica of his tattoos.

Riley Keough gave more insight into her mom’s decision to keep brother Benjamin’s coffin in her home following his death. CBS Keough sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a tell-all interview about her late mom’s posthumous memoir. CBS

Riley and Lisa Marie honored Benjamin by getting tats that matched his — he had his sister’s name written on his collarbone and his mom’s on his hand.

As a tribute, both women got Benjamin’s name inscribed on the exact areas he had theirs, which meant the tattoo artist had to inspect his preserved body in order to get the “placement exactly right.”

“He’s like, OK, do you have any photos?” Riley recalled the tattoo artist asking. “And she was like ’No, but I can show you.’”

Keough insisted her mom wasn’t “crazy” for allowing a tattoo artist to see her late brother’s body. CBS The mother-daughter duo invited a tattoo artist over to get matching tattoos with Benjamin. CBS

Riley said the whole thing went down very “matter of fact,” with Presley taking the artist to her son’s coffin, where she popped the lid and let him inspect the body.

Thankfully, the “Daisy Jones & the Six” star said the tattoo artist was “very normal about the whole thing” and acted professionally despite the strange request.

Although the situation made Riley a little uncomfortable, she “stayed quiet” out of respect for her mom.

“But it was definitely one of the most absurd moments [of my life],” she admitted.

Benjamin got tattoos in honor of his mother and sister before his death. Lance Murphey/EPA/Shutterstock The pair wanted the placement of their ink to be the “exact” same as Benjamin’s tats. Getty Images

While the actress acknowledged how “completely insane and absurd” the situation was, she insisted that her mom “wasn’t a crazy lady.”

“My mom was just very much herself,” Riley said.

Riley finished the book for her mom after the 54-year-old’s death in January 2023.

In the memoir, Lisa Marie explained that she chose to keep her son’s body because she couldn’t decide whether to bury him in Hawaii — where she owned a home — or at Graceland, the Memphis estate where her father, Elvis Presley, died and is buried.

Despite the bold request, Keough said the tattoo artist was very professional. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP However, the actress admitted the situation sounded “completely insane and absurd.” FilmMagic

“My house has a separate casitas bedroom and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months. There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately,” Lisa Marie wrote. “I found a very empathetic funeral home owner … She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben to you.’”

The funeral home owner instructed Lisa Marie to keep the room at 55 degrees and keep him on dry ice to preserve the body.

After awhile, the grieving mother “got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there.”

Benjamin died by suicide in 2020. MediaPunch/Shutterstock Keough believes her mom died of a broken heart after his death. Copetti/Photofab/Shutterstock

“I think it would scare the living f–king piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that,” she wrote. “But not me.”

However, the family eventually held a funeral for Benjamin in Malibu and he was laid to rest next to his grandfather.

Lisa Marie would later be buried there as well.