How Lisa Marie Presley's matching tattoo with her son Ben Keough helped her grieve

As Lisa Marie Presley's son Benjamin Keough died by suicide in 2020 She began living on borrowed time, Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough told Oprah Winfrey in one exclusive primetime special “An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley,” airs Tuesday on CBS.

“I just couldn't imagine a world where she would make it without him,” Keough said as she recalled the final years she spent with her famous mother and how she dealt with her brother's death as she finished co-writing “From Here to the Great Unknown,” Lisa Marie’s posthumous memoir.

“She would say, 'I'm going to die of a broken heart,' and I think we felt that,” Keough told Winfrey.

Lisa Marie's grief was so great that she kept Ben's coffin in her home for about two months after his death. She worked with a funeral director to ensure the body was preserved using dry ice until it was ready for burial.

“Everyone in the house was grieving,” Keough said, adding that Lisa Marie felt comfort as she sat next to the body.

During the mourning period, Lisa Marie called a tattoo artist to help her get her ink before laying Ben to rest. She wanted a tattoo like his on her hand – in the same place he got tattooed.

“My mother was herself,” Keough said. “She wasn’t a crazy woman.”

Keough remembers Lisa Marie taking the artist to Ben's casket to show him the placement of the tattoo and make sure the placement was just right.

“He was like, ‘Okay, do you have any photos?’” Keough remembers the tattoo artist asking. “And she said, 'No, but I can show you.'”

Keough said the tattoo artist was very professional, studied the placement and designed the meaningful tattoo for Lisa Marie.

The tattoo, honoring their mother-son bond, proved how close the couple was. In her memoir, Lisa Marie wrote about how much Ben resembled her father, Elvis.

“Ben was very, very, very similar to his grandfather in every way. He even looked like him. Ben was so similar to him that it scared me. I didn't want to tell him because I thought it was too much to harm a child. He told me everything like my father and his mother. “It was a generational shift so much so that she drank herself to death worrying about him, that Ben didn’t have a chance,” Lisa Marie wrote.

Stream Winfrey's exclusive hour-long interview with Keough on Tuesday, October 8 at 8pm ET/PT on CBS. “An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley” is streaming live Paramount+ for “Paramount+ with Showtime” subscribers and will be available on-demand the next day for “Paramount+ Essentials” subscribers.

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health resources and support, call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@theNational Alliance on Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET Mental Illness (NAMI). nami.org.