By Thomas A. Parmalee
Talla Kuperman will never forget the moment she discovered fingerprint jewelry.
She was sitting in a funeral home across from a funeral director, drowning in grief after losing her brother, Amir, to cancer.
“She gently slid a manila folder across the desk to me,” she recalled. “I can still hear that ssssshhhhhhh sound as it dragged across the table. She kept her hand on the folder, looked me in the eyes with such kindness, and told me it contained my brother’s fingerprints, taken with ink and his actual touch.”
She wanted to hold her brother’s hand again, and she knew that what she was being offered was the closest she’d come to her wish.
“But then came the heartbreak,” she said.
After spending what felt like hours going through catalogs, she settled on what she felt was the only tolerable option: A basic oval in 14-karat yellow gold … but it was too expensive for her to buy at the time.
Everything else, she felt, was just tacky, gaudy, or plain ugly.
“So, I went home and grieved for many years, keeping his fingerprint in that manila folder in my closet as one of my most treasured possessions,” she said. “It became something I’d grab if my house were on fire because it was the original ink print of his fingerprints. Nothing like it existed anywhere else.”
The experience, however, created the seed of an idea to design pieces of jewelry incorporating the fingerprints of loved ones that family members would be proud and honored to wear.
But it took time.
“I had to wait ten years and create something of my own because nothing beautiful enough for Amir’s memory existed in the world,” she said.
FuneralVision.com recently caught up with Kuperman to learn how she found the courage to start her own company, Forever LT Fingerprint Keepsakes, how she works with funeral homes and what she’s learned on her journey.
You started Forever LT Fingerprint Keepsakes after losing your brother, Amir. How did his death lead you to start the company?
Every single day, I honor Amir’s legacy by taking something incredibly painful and transforming it into something beautiful that helps other families heal. When I lost my brother to cancer 13 years ago, my heart was completely shattered. But Amir and I talked extensively during his year-and-a-half battle about how he wanted me to live my life to the fullest and how he did not want his death to crush me.
Creating Forever LT Fingerprint Keepsakes is my way of ensuring that no other sister, no other mother, no other father has to feel the way I felt when I was searching for something meaningful to hold his memory close to my heart. I couldn’t find anything worthy of his incredible spirit. Everything available was tacky, gaudy, or just plain depressing.
Through Forever LT, I’m giving families the beautiful, elegant keepsakes that Amir deserved but that I couldn’t find. Every time a funeral director tells me how a family’s face lights up when they see our jewelry, every time someone tells me they never take off their Forever LT piece, I know I’m living exactly the way Amir would want me to. He’s the reason this company exists, and he’s the reason I wake up every day determined to serve grieving families with something truly worthy of their loved ones’ legacies.
You also are the founder of a sister company, Love Talla. Which came first?
Love Talla Fingerprint Necklaces came first. I launched Love Talla in March 2021, right before Mother’s Day, with the mission of bringing fingerprint jewelry out of the grief world and into mainstream jewelry. I couldn’t understand why this concept wasn’t already mainstream. I wanted to show the world that fingerprint jewelry isn’t just for remembering those we’ve lost, but also for celebrating and cherishing the people we love who are very much alive, like our children, grandchildren, and partners. Telling our complete life stories through beautiful jewelry.
Forever LT was actually born from a beautiful moment at a Christmas trade show in Houston. A funeral home owner’s daughter looked at my Love Talla jewelry and said to her mom, “Oh my gosh, this is way better than the stuff you have.” That’s when I learned her mother owned a funeral home and carried fingerprint jewelry. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You belong with us.”
That moment made me realize that while I was trying to pull fingerprint jewelry out of the darkness and into the light, there was still so much good we could do on the grief side. So many hearts we could help heal. I realized two companies needed to exist. Love Talla for celebrating life and creating the ultimate mom necklaces, and Forever LT for serving grieving families where my roots began, because that work is so important and powerful.
Why did you feel compelled to design something new for those who wanted to incorporate a loved one’s fingerprint into a special piece of jewelry?
Everything available was stuck in the past. The entire fingerprint jewelry industry seemed frozen in time with these terrible, outdated designs that screamed “death jewelry.” We’re talking about ovals enveloped with angel wings, teardrops, and just really in-your-face grieving symbols.
I didn’t want to advertise that I was grieving or that I had lost someone close to me. I wanted something beautiful and personal, where I would know his fingerprint was there and it would be meaningful to me. Then if I chose to share the story with someone, that would be my choice.
But more than that, nothing was stylistically beautiful, updated, or modern. None of it was something that my demographic at the time, someone in their thirties, was interested in wearing every single day. And if you’re not willing to wear it every day, why waste money on it?
I recognized there was a massive gap in the market. These families deserved something worthy of their loved ones’ incredible legacies. They deserved jewelry that was as beautiful and timeless as the memories they were trying to preserve. That’s exactly what I set out to create.
Do you have a background as an artist/designer? What did you do before starting Forever LT?
I have absolutely no background in art or design whatsoever. I was an underwriter for big insurance companies for 13 years. I was really good at it and climbed the ranks quickly, but when motherhood came calling, I made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom.
Let me tell you, I took about a year and a half to realize I was not cut out for that job. Being a stay-at-home mom is an extremely hard job, much harder than anything I’d done in the corporate world.
So here I was with zero experience in jewelry making, manufacturing, marketing, sales, or anything related to what I was about to embark on. Thank goodness for my husband, who picked up the phone and started telling everyone he knew about my idea. Through those conversations, he found people who became my mentors and helped me navigate the jewelry world.
I met an angel of a mentor who introduced me to the sweetest couple who had been making jewelry for 40 years. They listened to my story and my purpose and wanted to help. They helped me with design, concept, and all the intricate details that go into creating unique, custom pieces one by one. Everything we make is completely custom and uniquely created for the person who wants to wear that keepsake.
Starting this business taught me that sometimes your greatest strength is knowing what you don’t know and being humble enough to learn from people who do.
Did you develop a new appreciation for funeral service after your brother died?
Absolutely. Going through Amir’s death gave me such a deep appreciation for funeral professionals and the impossible job they do every single day. They hold space for families in their darkest moments while somehow maintaining strength and grace.
What stuck out to me most was how that funeral director introduced me to fingerprint keepsakes. She didn’t just hand me catalogs and walk away. She sat with me, patiently looking through every single option, trying to help me find something meaningful. Even though what was available wasn’t beautiful enough, she cared enough to try.
But here’s what I think funeral professionals need to know: Families remember everything. I still remember the sound of that manila folder sliding across the desk 13 years later. I remember her gentle tone, the way she kept her hand on the folder, how she looked me in the eyes when she explained what was inside.
What I’d tell funeral professionals is this: Never underestimate the power of offering something beautiful during that impossible time. When families are making decisions in those few days when their hearts are completely broken, having access to keepsakes or even the option of a keepsake that are truly worthy of their loved one’s legacy can be part of their healing journey. This is what I tell everyone who is going through loss and opts out of having their loved one fingerprinted. Just do it. You just never know how you are going to feel three weeks, four months, six years from now. Just having the option means everything.
When did you officially launch each business?
Love Talla officially launched in March 2021, and Forever LT was born shortly after when that funeral home owner told me I belonged in the funeral industry. So, while Love Talla has been around since 2021, Forever LT specifically for funeral homes really took off throughout 2021 and 2022 as word spread through the funeral industry.
What was the biggest struggle you had to overcome or the hardest question to answer as you started the company?
The biggest struggle was definitely believing in myself when I had zero experience in this industry. I almost didn’t even have the guts to say my idea out loud to anyone. It just rattled around inside my head for nearly a decade because I’m the kind of person who needs everything to be perfect before I do anything.
But here’s the thing, there’s nothing perfect about starting a business. It is all about messy action, and I had to learn to be okay with that.
The hardest question to answer was probably “How do you know this will work?” Because honestly, I didn’t know. I just knew that I wasn’t the only person who had been disappointed by what was available on the market. I knew there had to be other sisters, other mothers, other fathers who wanted something more beautiful, more worthy of their loved one’s memory. I also knew that I was absolutely obsessed with the idea and could not possibly go on without trying to be there in some realm for others that may feel the way I felt.
Turns out I was right. The response from both funeral professionals and families has been overwhelming. When funeral directors who have access to every type of keepsake in existence choose us for their own personal pieces, I know we’re on the right path.
How many funeral homes do you work with?
We’re working with funeral homes across the country, and the growth has been incredible. I honestly can’t give you an exact number because it’s growing so rapidly. Every time we attend a trade show or a funeral director sees our work, they want to partner with us.
What I can tell you is that we’re seeing funeral homes choose us because we’re solving real problems for them while offering something their families actually want to wear every single day.
Do funeral homes typically offer this to families and mark it up a certain percentage?
I have to be honest, this is my least favorite conversation to have with funeral home owners, but it’s an important one.
While funeral homes ultimately need to run their businesses the way they see fit, I strongly discourage any price inflation on our pieces. We have a really generous commission structure for funeral homes, and yes, we are a premium jewelry option, but if you’ve read this far, you know this isn’t all about profit for me. This is a purpose-driven company.
We price our pieces fairly because we never want families to feel like we’re taking advantage of them during the worst time of their lives. In today’s world, with Google Lens technology and the internet, you lose trust and integrity really fast if families discover you’re charging more than what’s available to the general public.
We strive to be incredibly transparent in everything we do: transparent with our mission, our commission structure, our fingerprints (we never hold them hostage), and absolutely transparent with our prices. This is a company that leads with love, and that’s what feels right to me.
In fact, we’ve actually been told by people in the industry that we’re too inexpensive for the quality and craftsmanship we provide. But that’s exactly the point. We’re not trying to maximize profit margins. We’re trying to serve families with integrity during their most vulnerable moments.
I treat every family that our funeral home partners bring to us with the utmost respect, following the golden rule. These families are trusting us with their most precious memories during their most vulnerable moments. That’s sacred ground, and our pricing should reflect that level of respect and care.
Do you only sell Forever LT merchandise through funeral homes?
So far, Forever LT works exclusively through funeral home partnerships, although we are looking at affiliate partnerships in the near future. Love Talla is our direct-to-consumer brand for celebrating living loved ones, but Forever LT is specifically designed to serve the funeral industry.
The funeral home channel is so much more effective for what we do. Funeral directors are incredible at introducing the concept and educating families about how these keepsakes allow them to literally hold their loved one’s hand again. They understand the emotional weight of what we’re offering in a way that’s hard to replicate through online marketing.
It’s also a much more natural conversation. The funeral home has already established trust with the family, and when they recommend Forever LT, families know it’s coming from a place of genuine care, not a sales pitch. Since the funeral home has chosen to partner with us, families can trust that we’re a reputable company worthy of their loved one’s memory.
From a practical standpoint, these are warm leads. Families in funeral homes aren’t just browsing. They have an immediate, profound need for something tangible to hold onto. They’re actively seeking ways to feel connected to their loved one, which makes the conversation much more meaningful and less transactional.
The direct-to-consumer relationship is much harder and more time-consuming in comparison, which is why the funeral home partnership model works so beautifully for what we do.
How have you eased the burden of the fingerprint scanning process for funeral homes?
This is something I’m really passionate about because I want to give funeral directors their time back, so they can focus on what they do best, which is caring for families.
One of the biggest problems we set out to fix was the terrible quality of fingerprint scans from other companies. They were unclear, missing many parts of the beautiful fingerprint details, and this was creating heartbreaking situations for funeral directors. Imagine having to tell a grieving family that the scan of their loved one’s fingerprint didn’t turn out well. Those conversations were devastating for everyone involved.
We’ve eliminated that burden by providing funeral directors with FBI-level scanning technology that gets the clearest, most beautiful fingerprint possible every single time. We educate them that the prettiest part of the fingerprint is right down by the first knuckle, not up on the tip where most people think to scan.
But here’s the real game-changer: we’ve incorporated AI technology that takes the raw scanned fingerprint and automatically cleans it up. It deletes all the background noise, cleans up faint lines, and gives you the most crisp, clean fingerprint with 100% accuracy. This means funeral directors never have to have those crushing conversations with families about poor scan quality.
We’ve also streamlined their entire process. Instead of funeral directors having to capture fingerprints on their personal cell phones, email them to themselves, create folders on their computers, and organize files manually, our system handles everything seamlessly. We’re giving them hours of their time back.
Our Texas DPS partnership has been another huge burden-lifter. When fingerprints weren’t captured properly or when families want keepsakes of loved ones who passed away years ago at different funeral homes, funeral directors can now request digital fingerprints within three to five business days. This has literally saved funeral homes from lawsuits and those impossible conversations where they have to tell families, “We can’t help you.”
We’ve found fingerprints in the most creative places: old dental records, notarized documents, even pulled them off photographs of hands. We guide our funeral home partners through every possibility because we never want them to have to tell a family they can’t create a keepsake.
What is the price range for your merchandise?
Our pieces range from our more accessible sterling silver options starting at $245 to our solid gold fine jewelry pieces that go upward of $2,200.
What I love is that we have something meaningful for every budget because grief doesn’t discriminate, and everyone deserves something beautiful to honor their loved one.
The most commonly selected pieces tend to be our silver options with handwriting engraving on the back. There’s something incredibly powerful about combining someone’s actual fingerprint with their handwriting. It takes families to a different place and time, and it elevates an already incredible keepsake to a completely new level.
Can you highlight a few of your most popular items?
Our most popular pieces are The Rise, which was inspired by “You Are My Sunshine” (the song I used to sing to Amir), The Sun, and The Love.
The Rise is especially meaningful because it looks like sunshine and represents how our loved ones continue to bring light into our lives even after they’re gone.
We also created cremation vessels of our most popular designs. What makes them special is that they’re fully hollowed out but still feel incredibly heavy, like you’re getting a chunk of silver. There’s no screw, no special tools, no glue. Just an amazing plug system that takes seconds to use. We heard funeral directors complaining about how difficult and time-consuming traditional cremation jewelry was, so we solved that problem.
Do you have a personal favorite – and can you share with us some details about the pieces you wear to honor your brother and daughter?
My all-time favorite piece is the original one I designed for myself: The Rise with Amir’s fingerprint and his handwriting on the back. It looks like the sun because toward the end of his cancer battle, I would sit next to him and sing “You Are My Sunshine.” It was my way of begging God not to take him from me. So, putting his fingerprint on a sun-shaped pendant felt like the perfect way to honor him. It reminds me to love my life, just like he would want me to.
The second piece I wear is The Sun & Moon necklace, which is two pendants that hang from two chains that meet at the back. On the first pendant, The Sun, is Lexi’s sweet little fingerprint. On the back, in her adorable kindergarten handwriting, she wrote her name. Her fingerprints were formed while she was inside my womb, the same ridges and whorls created by amniotic fluid swirling around her little fingers as she pushed against me. She’s the light of my life and the reason I keep going, so it felt perfect to put her on The Sun.
On the bottom pendant, The Moon, are two fingerprints combined: my brother’s and my mother’s. They are my roots, my family, the legends who shaped who I am. On the back of The Moon is my brother’s handwriting, saying, “Remember your destiny.”
Together, these pieces represent my entire life story: the profound loss that broke me, the incredible love that rebuilt me and the destiny that guides me forward. When I wear them, I’m literally carrying my whole world with me.
You also offer jewelry honoring pets. How popular is this, and is it a growing segment? What other areas or occasions do you focus on?
Pet keepsakes are incredibly popular and absolutely exploding as a segment. The numbers are staggering. The U.S. pet market reached $157 billion in 2025 and is projected to climb to $250 billion by 2030.
When people are spending that kind of money on their pets during life, it makes complete sense that they want something beautiful to honor them in death. The grief people experience when they lose a beloved pet is real and profound, and they deserve something worthy of that bond. We are fortunate to have partnered with a large pet crematorium that offers our keepsakes to their families.
However, the sector we choose to focus on is keepsakes for human loss. If we were to really dig deep, where Forever LT has its greatest impact is with mothers who have experienced loss. We’re the only keepsake company creating ultrasound necklaces and embryo necklaces for IVF mama warriors. We find creative ways to represent the beautiful angels that families lose before they even get a chance to know them.
This is what really sets us apart from other companies. When mothers leave the hospital empty-handed after a miscarriage, with no fingerprint and sometimes no footprint, we ask them to send us their favorite ultrasound. We create something meaningful from what they do have. This level of customization and care for the most heartbreaking situations is where Forever LT truly shines.
What are some of the most common questions you get from funeral homes?
The most common question is: “What if we can’t get a good fingerprint?”
My answer is always: “Let’s get creative.” We have so many solutions. Our Texas DPS partnership, finding prints on old documents, pulling them from photographs, using toe prints, etc. We never give up because families deserve these keepsakes.
Another big question is: “How do I explain this to families without sounding like I’m just trying to sell them something?”
I tell them: Don’t mention anything to them. Put our display on your desk or table where you meet with the families and don’t say a single word about it. These necklaces, they sell themselves.
And then: “What makes you different from other keepsake companies?”
Everything. The beauty of our designs, the technology we use, the way we treat every single piece as if it’s for our own family member. But most importantly, we understand grief because this company was born from my own loss. We’re not just making jewelry; we’re helping hearts heal.
Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?
Starting Forever LT has taught me that sometimes the most beautiful things can grow from the most painful experiences. Amir’s death could have broken me forever. It was something that he was really concerned about before his death, but instead, it became my purpose.
To every funeral professional reading this: thank you for the impossible job you do every single day. You hold space for families in their darkest moments, and that’s sacred work.
To every grieving family: your loved one’s legacy deserves something beautiful. You deserve something that makes you feel connected to them every single day. Don’t settle for anything less than extraordinary.
And to anyone who’s lost someone they love: the goal isn’t to “get over” grief. The goal is to transform it into something meaningful. That’s exactly what Forever LT represents. It’s love, legacy and healing all wrapped up in something you can wear close to your heart forever.
Amir would be so proud to know that his legacy lives on in every single piece we create. That’s the most beautiful tribute I could ever give him.
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