Embalmers
Prepare bodies for interment in conformity with legal requirements.
Also known as: Anatomical Embalmer, Arterial Embalmer, Embalmer, Funeral Embalmer, Funeral Services Embalmer, Licensed Embalmer, Restorative Art Embalmer, Trade Embalmer
Annual Salary
Median annual wage (May 2024)
Job Outlook
Projected growth, 2024–2034 (Slower than average)
What You'd Do
- Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.
- Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.
- Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
- Close incisions, using needles and sutures.
- Reshape or reconstruct disfigured or maimed bodies when necessary, using dermasurgery techniques and materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of Paris, and wax.
- Make incisions in arms or thighs and drain blood from circulatory system and replace it with embalming fluid, using pump.
- Dress bodies and place them in caskets.
- Perform the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities.
- Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.
- Conduct interviews to arrange for the preparation of obituary notices, to assist with the selection of caskets or urns, and to determine the location and time of burials or cremations.
- Attach trocar to pump-tube, start pump, and repeat probing to force embalming fluid into organs.
- Perform special procedures necessary for remains that are to be transported to other states or overseas, or where death was caused by infectious disease.
- Maintain records, such as itemized lists of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed.
- Insert convex celluloid or cotton between eyeballs and eyelids to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelids.
- Wash and dry bodies, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air dryers.
- Arrange for transporting the deceased to another state for interment.
- Supervise funeral attendants and other funeral home staff.
- Pack body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter.
- Assist with placing caskets in hearses and organize cemetery processions.
- Serve as pallbearers, attend visiting rooms, and provide other assistance to the bereaved.
Top Skills
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Knowledge Areas
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Education Level Distribution
Percentage of workers in this occupation by education level
Technology & Tools
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In-Demand Technologies
Other Tools
Work Styles
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Key Abilities
Cognitive, physical, and sensory abilities important for this role
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Activities
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Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Environment
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Related Careers
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Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024. Outlook data: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.