At the age of 73, Phan Kim from Ha Tinh City, cannot remember how many times he has bathed and applied makeup to the dead before putting them in a coffin, taken medical samples, and assisted the police in autopsies. 

“My wife and children don’t want me to do this work, saying that this affects my health. However, it is simply my profession and I have to do it,” he said. 

“People call me every day and ask for help, sometimes to pick up drowned bodies, sometimes to make up corpses,” he said.

“Every time when I pick up lipstick, I always think that this is the last time they can have a bath and a makeup, so I need to clean them and make them up well,” Kim said.

The man began the job in 1991, when after 19 years of working for a transport firm in Ha Tinh, he bought a 12-seat Hyundai car and used it to carry patients from Ha Tinh to Hanoi and Hanoi to Ha Tinh.

At first, it gave him the shivers when seeing the dead, but later he got used to daily contact with corpses. He carried seriously ill patients to hospitals and dead bodies to their families to take care in the aftermath.

“At that time, hospitals did not have many ambulances, so I worked as an ambulance driver. After carrying corpses and giving them to family members, I felt sorry for them, so I decided to help them clean and make up the dead,” he recalled.

At first, the man did it for free. Later, families heard about this and began hiring him, so making up the dead became his job.

Kim works with high responsibility. He can leave home at any time when relatives of the dead need him. He quietly puts on a white protective shirt and gloves, and leaves home to undertake his duties.

Kim estimates that he cares for 17 dead bodies a month on average. His duties are bathing, washing hair, making up, restoring and sewing up bodies disfigured because of accidents, and helping families organize funerals.

As Kim has experience, he is hired to perform autopsies, pick up dead bodies and take medical samples of the dead. Of this work, he is most confident in making up the dead.

“It is very difficult to apply makeup to the deceased because the skin is slack. I have to apply cream and powder properly to make the skin look better. You need to be careful and clever with your hands to do this,” he said.

“The most difficult thing is using a pencil to create eyelids for the deceased, making them look like they are asleep. This is really a difficult technique,” he said. 

“I know how to make the dead look their best. Men don’t need red lips, but women will be more beautiful with red lips. Men need thick eyebrows, while women need delicate eyebrows,” he concluded.

“When I wash them, I always do this very carefully, because this is the last time they can get a bath,” he said.

He is happy when relatives of the dead are satisfied about the service. 

“One day, after I made up an 86-year-old women, her husband asked me how I could make the woman look young and beautiful as if she was just 68 years old,” Kim said. 

Kim also helps repair parts of dead bodies which are injured by accidents.

Kim said one day he had to spend three hours to sew up the dead body of a female teacher, disfigured after a terrible accident.

“It is an obsession for me. People say that I have an ‘iron spirit’ and that I am a person of the netherworld. However, I don’t have the heart to refuse the people who need my help,” he said.

Thien Luong