It can have any length. It's the family who chooses the words that they think it fits the most with the deceased.
Example 1. Example 2. Example 3.
Very short epitaphs are kinda sad.
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Asklemmy
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You either knew the person, then you don't need that information. Or you didn't know that person, then it's none of your business.
Sadly, this makes sense.
Do we really need the dead bragging about their achievements the same as the living?
Epitaphs are written by those who loved & survived the decedent. So if they could financially afford the cost of some extra words engraved in stone, it would be a nice way to honor the person they loved.
I'm much more impressed by someone being good to their loved ones than someone being rich or famous.
Yes that's perfectly fine and nice and beautiful, but don't you think it's weird seeing celebrity gravestones that make no mention of the fact that they were famous and what they were known for?
Honestly my YouTube algorithm keeps giving me videos from "Scott On Tape" and "Dearly Departed Tours" who cover a lot of celebrity lore and graveyards, and that's why this is so prominent in my mind, there are a lot of famous people with very minimal headstones and I find it odd.
And then there's Frank Zappa who requested to be buried but no headstone whatsoever, not even his family is sure exactly where he is, they know the general area in the graveyard but it's unmarked. And that's how Frank Zappa wanted it π€·πΌββοΈ
You're thinking about what these people mean to you, not what they mean to the people who buried them. When you're close to someone famous, they're not that impressive guy with hundreds of achievements, they're just dad, brother, son, beloved. I wouldn't want to be dehumanized by someone turning my headstone into a CV.
As for Zappa, he was a weird guy. You can tell by listening to any of his albums. Plenty of reason to love his music.
Funerals are for the living, not the dead. Grieving family members care about the person as a dad, brother or son, not as the hollywood record breaking super scientist.
Because the purpose is not to be a biography or obituary. The purpose is to say something brief and poignant/emotional. People write actual obituaries/eulogies/biographies for that purpose.
Last I checked it costs too much to engrave wikipedia articles into headstones.
I love the implication that they found a cure for their own invention
I know, I know it was poorly written but I was just rattling off various examples of achievements that various people have achieved.
The headstone is not there for you. The cemetery is there for you, though.
Ah death the great humbler, but really headstones imo are more for the people close to you left behind than testament of a life well livedπ
Personally burn me and spread some ashes somewhere that makes you - people left behind happy remembering me
Because stonemasons charge by the letter.
Ok but what about famous wealthy celebrities for whom money is no concern?
What do stonemasons charge? $100k per letter?
I'll probably use a QR code
And then years later someone will be posting "Why do all these gravestones link to sketchy scam websites?"
You can encode quite a bit of text in a QR code... It doesn't need to be a URL. Smart idea!
I like this idea a lot! Because walking through graveyards we get curious and we want to know about these people. Especially celebrities, and we would be fascinated to know the cause of death too because of course that's never written on the epitaph either. I wish cause of death would be written on epitaphs. I know that would be dark & morbid & in poor taste but honestly that's what everybody's interested to know!