Top 12 Embalmer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the specialized and delicate work of embalming, the skills you highlight can open doors. A strong resume doesn’t just signal technical command over preservation and presentation. It shows you can balance procedure with empathy, precision with ethics, and composure with respect for the families you serve.
Embalmer Skills
- Embalming Techniques
- Restorative Art
- Anatomical Knowledge
- Chemical Safety
- Pathology Understanding
- Cosmetology Skills
- Trocar Usage
- Hypodermic Embalming
- Arterial Injection
- Cavity Treatment
- Disinfection Protocols
- Mortuary Compliance
1. Embalming Techniques
Embalming techniques center on preserving the deceased to delay decomposition for visitation and services. The process typically includes sanitation, feature setting, cosmetic work, arterial injection to replace blood and fluids, and targeted cavity treatment. The aim is twofold: dignified presentation and control of microbial activity.
Why It's Important
Reliable technique keeps tissues firm, features natural, and the environment safer. It supports a meaningful viewing experience while reducing risks tied to pathogens and decomposition.
How to Improve Embalming Techniques Skills
Progress comes from steady refinement and disciplined habits.
Keep learning: Seek continuing education, peer demonstrations, and case reviews. New formulations, instruments, and protocols evolve—stay current.
Use quality chemicals: Choose well-tested arterial, co-injection, and cavity fluids suited to the case condition (edema, jaundice, dehydration, trauma).
Prioritize safety: Wear appropriate PPE, monitor exposure limits, and maintain ventilation that meets professional guidance.
Sharpen core techniques: Perfect vessel selection, incision placement, injection and drainage balance, and feature setting. Repetition with intention matters.
Adopt modern tools: Use embalming machines with reliable pressure/flow control, calibrated instruments, and well-maintained aspirators.
Learn from peers: Case debriefs, mentorships, and professional associations accelerate skill growth.
Strong fundamentals plus thoughtful case analysis—this is where consistent results come from.
How to Display Embalming Techniques Skills on Your Resume
2. Restorative Art
Restorative art restores contour, symmetry, and a lifelike presence. It blends reconstructive techniques, wax work, color theory, and cosmetology to repair trauma, illness changes, or postmortem artifacts so families can recognize their loved one.
Why It's Important
It offers families a gentler farewell. It protects dignity. It transforms difficult cases into viewable, peaceful presentations.
How to Improve Restorative Art Skills
Refinement comes from practice and precise observation.
Advance your training: Take restorative art workshops and advanced courses through accredited mortuary science programs and professional associations.
Deepen color mastery: Study undertones, complementary colors, and corrective blends for lifelike skin tones under varied lighting.
Cosmetic precision: Build techniques for airbrush and brush application, texture matching, and shine control.
Prosthetics and wax: Practice ear, nose, lip, and orbital reconstructions; learn to anchor, edge-blend, and texture-match.
Mentorship: Observe seasoned restorative artists, request critiques, and build a reference library of case studies.
The eye learns by doing. Photograph work (with permission), evaluate honestly, iterate.
How to Display Restorative Art Skills on Your Resume
3. Anatomical Knowledge
For embalmers, anatomy means roadmap-level familiarity with vascular routes, organs, connective tissue planes, and surface landmarks—knowledge that guides injection choices, feature setting, and restorative decisions.
Why It's Important
Accurate vessel selection, targeted distribution, minimal tissue trauma, and functional restoration all rely on clear anatomical understanding.
How to Improve Anatomical Knowledge Skills
Make it systematic.
Study core texts: Use comprehensive resources such as Gray’s Anatomy for Students and embalming-focused anatomy references.
Structured courses: Enroll in anatomy modules within accredited funeral service programs or continuing education tracks.
Interactive tools: 3D anatomy apps and models can cement spatial relationships you’ll rely on during injection and aspiration.
Case application: Correlate what you study with what you see on the table. Keep notes; patterns emerge.
Peer learning: Review difficult cases with colleagues and mentors—problem-solve together.
Repetition plus real-world application turns theory into instinct.
How to Display Anatomical Knowledge Skills on Your Resume
4. Chemical Safety
Chemical safety covers selection, handling, storage, exposure control, and disposal of embalming chemicals—formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde among them—to protect workers, visitors, and the environment.
Why It's Important
Exposure risks are real. Sound controls prevent acute irritations, chronic effects, and environmental harm, while keeping the prep room compliant and safe.
How to Improve Chemical Safety Skills
Think in layers of protection.
Training: Complete and refresh hazard communication, spill response, and exposure control training aligned with OSHA and similar standards.
PPE discipline: Choose gloves compatible with aldehydes, eye and face protection, and respiratory protection as indicated by exposure assessments.
Ventilation: Maintain effective local exhaust and general ventilation. Verify capture efficiency and airflow routinely.
Storage and labeling: Keep chemicals in closed, labeled containers with secondary containment; segregate incompatibles.
Spill readiness: Stock appropriate spill kits; drill the response steps; document incidents and improvements.
Health monitoring: Periodic medical surveillance where required and prudent exposure tracking.
Safety isn’t a one-off checklist—it’s a culture you maintain daily.
How to Display Chemical Safety Skills on Your Resume
5. Pathology Understanding
Pathology understanding means recognizing disease processes, postmortem changes, and how they influence chemical choice, distribution, and restoration—so you can anticipate problems before they appear.
Why It's Important
It guides case analysis. It informs sanitation, PPE, and instrument disinfection. It helps you select techniques that counteract edema, emaciation, jaundice, trauma, or infectious risk.
How to Improve Pathology Understanding Skills
Build from fundamentals, then specialize.
Continuing education: Take courses in pathology tailored to funeral service professionals.
Core texts and journals: Robbins Basic Pathology and funeral service publications provide both foundation and application.
Case logs: Track conditions encountered and what worked—fluids, pressures, supplementary methods.
Peer exchange: Discuss unusual cases with colleagues; learn from near-misses and successes.
Workshops and seminars: Seek hands-on sessions blending pathology with practical embalming interventions.
Pattern recognition is power. With it, you choose better, faster.
How to Display Pathology Understanding Skills on Your Resume
6. Cosmetology Skills
Cosmetology in embalming brings complexion back to balance, manages texture and sheen, and restores hair, brows, and lashes for a calm, recognizable appearance under chapel lighting.
Why It's Important
Thoughtful cosmetics soften difficult memories and offer families a compassionate, reassuring final image.
How to Improve Cosmetology Skills
Small tweaks, big difference.
Focused education: Take mortuary cosmetology and restorative art workshops that address texture, trauma correction, and lighting effects.
Deliberate practice: Rehearse on practice forms to perfect blending, contouring, and corrective color work.
Stay current: Read trade journals and attend expos to learn new products and application methods.
Kit discipline: Maintain a clean, labeled kit; standardize brushes, sponges, and airbrush settings for repeatable results.
Feedback loop: Ask trusted peers for critique; study photos under different light temperatures.
Natural, not theatrical—that’s the benchmark.
How to Display Cosmetology Skills on Your Resume
7. Trocar Usage
The trocar allows aspiration of gases and liquids and targeted introduction of cavity chemicals—critical steps for internal disinfection and preservation.
Why It's Important
Efficient trocar work curbs purge, reduces odor, and stabilizes internal tissues, which supports overall presentation and hygiene.
How to Improve Trocar Usage Skills
Precision and restraint.
Know the landmarks: Map organ positions and angles of entry to avoid organ perforation where unintended and to reach dependent areas effectively.
Gentle, controlled motion: Use measured insertion with minimal tissue trauma; confirm placement before aspiration or injection.
Equipment care: Keep tips sharp, valves smooth, and tubing intact; inspect and sanitize after each use.
Technique refreshers: Periodically review trocar techniques through workshops or mentorship to refine efficiency and safety.
Clean, deliberate passes beat hurried, forceful attempts every time.
How to Display Trocar Usage Skills on Your Resume
8. Hypodermic Embalming
Hypodermic embalming targets regions under-treated by vascular injection, using syringes and needles to deliver fluid right where it’s needed.
Why It's Important
It rescues stubborn areas—fingers, inner thighs, facial pockets, trauma zones—bringing uniform preservation and color where arterial flow falls short.
How to Improve Hypodermic Embalming Skills
Think targeted and tidy.
Pinpoint placement: Use anatomical landmarks and light massage to guide distribution and avoid overfilling.
Right tools: Stock a range of needle gauges and syringes suited to delicate and dense tissue alike; keep them sharp and clean.
Smart chemistry: Adjust strength and volume to tissue condition—dehydrated, edematous, or discolored areas call for different blends.
Recordkeeping: Note locations, volumes, and outcomes. Those notes sharpen future judgment.
Safety: Needle controls, sharps disposal, and PPE—no shortcuts.
Minimal punctures, maximal effect—that’s the goal.
How to Display Hypodermic Embalming Skills on Your Resume
9. Arterial Injection
Arterial injection distributes embalming fluid—often formaldehyde- or glutaraldehyde-based blends with modifiers—through the vascular system to sanitize, preserve, and restore form.
Why It's Important
It’s the backbone of embalming, determining tissue fixation, color, and overall presentation while slowing decomposition.
How to Improve Arterial Injection Skills
Tune your approach to the case, not the other way around.
Preparation: Position for drainage and distribution—slight head and shoulder elevation often helps.
Fluid selection: Match index, co-injection, and humectants to the body’s needs: edema, emaciation, jaundice, or trauma.
Injection site strategy: Carotid, femoral, or axillary—choose routes that best reach difficult areas, and don’t hesitate to multi-point when warranted.
Rate and pressure control: Use steady, appropriate settings; watch for distention, leakage, or poor distribution and adjust immediately.
Concurrent drainage: Balanced drainage clears discoloration and improves penetration; vary techniques (alternate, intermittent, continuous) as needed.
Manual aids: Gentle massage and limb rotation help break clots and push fluid through small vessels.
Supplemental work: Spot-treat with hypodermic injections where arterial flow won’t reach.
Continuous evaluation: Read the signs—tissue firmness, color change, and leak points—then adapt.
No two cases are twins; your settings and choices shouldn’t be either.
How to Display Arterial Injection Skills on Your Resume
10. Cavity Treatment
Cavity treatment disinfects and preserves thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic regions by aspirating gases and fluids, then introducing targeted cavity chemicals.
Why It's Important
It controls internal decomposition, limits purge, reduces odor, and safeguards sanitary conditions for services and transport.
How to Improve Cavity Treatment Skills
Method over muscle.
Assess first: Identify gas pockets, fluid accumulations, and areas at risk (stomach, intestines, lungs). Plan angles and sequence.
Right chemistry: Select cavity fluids with the potency and additives appropriate to the case; adjust volumes based on body size and condition.
Technique refinement: Use controlled aspiration—avoid excessive tissue disruption—and distribute cavity fluid evenly, including dependent areas.
Instrument readiness: Maintain aspirators, trocars, and tubing; verify seals and flow before beginning.
Post-treatment checks: Reassess after a rest period; re-aspirate or re-inject if necessary.
Deliberate passes, thorough coverage, cleaner outcomes.
How to Display Cavity Treatment Skills on Your Resume
11. Disinfection Protocols
Disinfection protocols set the standard for cleaning, disinfecting, and managing instruments, surfaces, and remains, reducing infection risks before, during, and after embalming.
Why It's Important
They protect staff and visitors, ensure regulatory compliance, and uphold professional trust in your preparation room.
How to Improve Disinfection Protocols Skills
Make them clear, consistent, and verified.
Current guidance: Align procedures with recognized public health and occupational safety standards; update as standards evolve.
Effective products: Use EPA-registered, hospital-grade disinfectants appropriate to the pathogens of concern; follow labeled contact times.
Training and drills: Educate staff on PPE, cleaning sequences, and instrument processing; rehearse high-risk scenarios.
Routine and rigorous: Disinfect high-touch and high-risk areas between cases; document tasks and timings.
Ventilation and airflow: Maintain air exchanges and capture of aerosols during procedures.
Waste management: Segregate, contain, and dispose of hazardous and sharps waste per local and federal rules.
Continuous improvement: Audit, correct, and re-train; let data drive upgrades.
Clean rooms don’t happen by accident—they’re managed with vigilance.
How to Display Disinfection Protocols Skills on Your Resume
12. Mortuary Compliance
Mortuary compliance means following legal, health, safety, and ethical requirements for handling, preparing, transporting, and documenting human remains.
Why It's Important
It protects workers, the public, and the families you serve—while safeguarding licensure, reputation, and trust.
How to Improve Mortuary Compliance Skills
Build systems you can prove.
Know the rules: Track federal, state, and local requirements, including OSHA-related standards and public health directives.
Continuing education: Attend courses and seminars through accredited funeral service organizations to stay current.
Documentation discipline: Maintain thorough records for identification, authorization, chemicals used, and procedures performed; standardize forms and audits.
Safety protocols: Enforce PPE use, exposure controls, and ventilation standards; practice spill and sharps procedures.
Ethics in action: Follow established professional codes of conduct; center consent, confidentiality, and respect in every case.
Compliance isn’t paperwork—it’s the backbone of trusted care.
How to Display Mortuary Compliance Skills on Your Resume
