Book tattoo

08 July 2005

"It may be the most interesting ongoing literary project in America, Shelley Jackson's Skin. The idea has a simple elegance: to take a short story and tattoo it, one word at a time, on the bodies of 2,000-plus volunteers. Each potential participant - or - 'word' as Jackson calls them - must submit an application with an essay explaining his or her desire. Tattoos have to be in a classic book font, plainly readable, and authenticated with a photograph to document the project's passage through the world."

The most recent stats on her website, whose motto is "no stain, no gain", are as follows:

Number of participants: holding steady at approximately 1,780 of 2,095
Number of releases received from those participants: 1,313
Words mailed out: 1,310
Words released but not yet mailed: 3
Words spoken for but not released: 467
New participants needed: 315
Number of new applicants: over 5,000
Total number of e-mails I have received related to this project: 13,007
Number of unanswered e-mails in my inbox to date: 6,788

Cults have been founded on less. What happens if you're given a word you don't like?

[via LA Weekly]