Mexico, of course, makes a holiday of the Day of the Dead, when bakeries turn out sugar skulls for those who would devour death.

Local citizens join in a celebration of the Day of the Dead put on by a theatre group with masks, candles, and sugar skulls.

She is the perfect companion for afternoons spent excitedly picking through sugar skulls and morbid toys in the bazaars.

"It's like the traditional sugar skulls you see in Mexico for Day of the Dead," she said.

One display case holds an assortment of sugar skulls, an image and a metaphor that about says it all regarding the Mexican attitude toward the hereafter.

The skulls we're decorating are sugar skulls.

"I'm about done here," she'd said, cracking the sugar skull of a calavera between her molars.

Brown's publicist stated that the tattoo does not depict a battered woman and is instead a design derived from a Day of the Dead sugar skull.

The children use rock candy to create sugar skulls.

They also make a version to imitate the sugar skulls created for Day of the Dead, which are profusely decorated with flowers, birds and other items.