'I use TikTok to make death less scary'

Inez Capps wants to encourage people to think about their funeral wishes

"Well you do look smart," Inez Capps says, as she straightens the tie of an elderly man, whose body has been prepared ahead of his funeral.

The deceased gentleman will soon be visited by his family members, who have requested that trance music be played because "that was his favourite".

These personal touches are just a few of the aspects of Inez's job that she discusses on her TikTok account, in which she tries to bust taboos around death.

In the last three years, the 32-year-old has amassed more than 100,000 followers - covering everything from tours of the hearse and the embalming suite, to the care a loved one receives.

Inez was 19 when she realised she wanted to work in the funeral industry

Inez was 19 years old when she decided she wanted to be a funeral director.

Her father Nigel Kinton, who was supporting other funeral firms at the time, got a callout to collect a body from a care home and asked Inez to help him.

"Obviously I was petrified, nervous, I was unsure what was going to happen," she said.

"My dad was just incredible and seeing him with the family, I came out of the care home and I looked at him and I just said, 'I need to do this'."

In 2013, she set up Kinton & Daughter Funeral Directors.

Inez made her first TikTok video in 2021

Inez's idea to start making TikTok videos about her job came after seeing another woman doing a similar thing about her job as the captain of a cruise ship.

"I just want to educate people a little bit because I feel like death isn't talked about enough, it's a very taboo subject," she said.

"At first initially, I was hoping it would just be behind the scenes but now it's giving people a safe space to ask questions and I'm hoping it will give them a bit more comfort."

Inez says she is careful in all of her videos not to include any personal details or footage of the people she is taking care of.

She has made videos about how an inquest works, how she keeps the coffin in place in the back of a hearse, and the make-up she uses to make the deceased look like "themselves".

"When you go into hospital, you kind of lose your identity a little bit, or you become your illness," she says.

"I'm able to give that person a little bit of themselves back."

Inez once dressed in a Star Trek outfit for a funeral of someone who loved the science-fiction programme

Inez's work goes beyond preparing bodies and liaising with families.

She has previously donned outfits such as Wonder Woman and "a full Star Trek outfit" for the family of a fan of the science-fiction programme, and danced at the funeral of someone who loved line dancing.

Inez says the best part of her job is when people thank her at the end of funerals.

"They just say 'that was exactly what we wanted', and that just makes everything feel amazing," she says.

'Black glitter coffin'

Inez does not want people to be scared to think about their funeral wishes or to talk about them with friends and family.

"If you talk about your wishes beforehand, it can make the process so much easier. I'm hoping that as more people see my videos, maybe it will make it easier for them to talk about," she says.

"I've been having that conversation since I was about 20. I want a black glitter coffin, and I want to be cremated or buried in my wedding dress."

The mother of two does admit, however, that she gets "far too emotionally invested" in her job.

"I get to know somebody for like two weeks, and I get to know who they are and who they were to their families and then I have to then say goodbye," she said.

"I can't switch that off, and if I ever got to the point where I could, maybe it would be time for me to hang my top hat up."