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Meet Our Team: Lexi Ames, Tissue Recovery Specialist

When art and anatomy collide: Lexi Ames uses her unique background of anatomical art illustration to inspire her work as a Tissue Recovery Specialist and vice versa.

How long have you been working at life source and what is your role?

I started at LifeSource originally as an ocular recovery specialist and then on the first day that I was on campus, I was told that there was an opening for a tissue recovery position and that sounded great. Love the idea of going full time so I made the transition January of 2021.

What did you do before becoming a tissue recovery specialist?

I’ve kind of jumped all over the place. After graduating in 2017 with a degree in art and biology, I was looking for something that was art related rather than science related right away. So, I actually worked in a tile factory for about two years or so, and then while I was working there, I was also supporting my own business of medical illustration and general illustration as well. I did an artist residency in Wisconsin, then moved to Scotland and did a post grad certification in anatomy there and then came home early because of COVID and then that’s when I started looking jobs that surrounded working with anatomy, death, and dying, and still playing around with my art. That’s kind of how I found LifeSource.

Why did you choose to work at LifeSource?

I’ve always had an interest in working with death and dying, and after doing a lot of research and doing a lot of classes that were kind of leading me up to a potential degree in Mortuary science, I knew that being a funeral director just wasn’t the right job for me. But the hands-on aspect of LifeSource was extremely intriguing to me, and I have a lot of family members in health care, so it kind of presented itself as this perfect little balance between healthcare and death care. And I really appreciated that and also just really like an unusual schedule, which has allowed me to continue working on a lot of my art stuff, so that’s been really nice.

As someone who often draws the body, what’s your favorite part of the human anatomy?

The pelvis. It’s one of my favorite structures. I have two huge posters of a pelvis in my home. It’s just, this really wonky shaped bone. You look at a pelvis and it’s like, “Oh where does that whole thing fit?” It’s this huge bowl and it does so much for us. I mean, it’s keeping us together with that extremely powerful muscular floor. I think it’s kind of the unsung hero of osteo anatomy. It’s just amazing.

I’m such a nerd for the human body. I will go on forever about it.

What inspires you to do this work?

I think one of the main things is just constantly being in awe of the human body. Truly, every single time it is, like, just an amazing experience. You know we’re seeing things that nobody else really gets to see. It’s such an honor to be able to do that. But also, my family is so supportive of this whole process. My dad has worked at HCMC for like 42 years I think, and he’s retiring this year and he and I communicate a lot about how special it is to work in healthcare and see these amazing events all the time.