Tattoo you.

March 23, 2005 3:46 AM

Has Shelley Jackson's tattoo story been published anywhere?
posted by the cuban to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

I haven't seen it anywhere, but it's interesting nonetheless. Thanks for the link.
posted by purephase at 4:53 AM on March 23, 2005

From the site: "The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another."

This makes me think that if it ever is published anywhere, that publication will be against the artist's original intent.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:17 AM on March 23, 2005

grabbingsand: "From the site: "The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another.""

In fact, the whole purpose of the Ineradicable Stain project is that the act of tattooing it will be its publication. So the answer is: yes it is published, one word each on 1780 different bodies (as of 9/10/2004).
posted by Plutor at 6:49 AM on March 23, 2005

She writes, "Some of you have asked whether I'm planning to bring all the words together some day. Someday I will, though I will have trouble finding a location close to everyone. I'll have to think how to include those of you who live in Argentina, Norway, Thailand. Not to mention California." Perhaps the day that most/all of the participants are together will be the book release party.
posted by fionab at 7:46 AM on March 23, 2005

Yeah.....you would sort of expect that this story or this combination of words would hold some mystical key or be a divine parable or have great intrinsic worth.

Somehow I've got the feeling that the story IS the embellishment and that the tattooed words are merely sideline to the greater (arguably mad) enterprise. I suppose points to the 'author' for weird thinking. But who would signup for a word????
posted by peacay at 8:11 AM on March 23, 2005

Peacay - funny, the second I read it I was interested in doing it. Different strokes for different folks, i guess.
posted by phearlez at 11:09 AM on March 23, 2005

phearlez it did (and does) intrigue me and perhaps I was a bit harsh....but I got put off by the whole regimentation and 'seriousness' of the project - emphasis on rules seems like a gimmick.
I'd like to hear more about what happens in the future with it all - meetings between 'words' could be an interesting outcome.
*Word 58 meets and marries word 106*. Heh.
I'll be remaining tattooless nonetheless.
posted by peacay at 12:31 PM on March 23, 2005

peacay: My ex's best friend has the word "the" inked on her chest. I forget which number she is, but the tatoo has been there for probably about two years or more. The young woman in question (and she is young; early twenties) is a very energetic theater type, a risk taker, and... well, not like other people. I think she signed up for the gig mostly because she saw it as being part of a performance.
posted by Clay201 at 1:04 PM on March 23, 2005