Shelly Jackson’s Ineradicable Stain

Author Shelley Jackson is seeking 2,095 people to each have one word of her short story “Skin” tattooed into their flesh. Here’s the cool part:

“From this time on, participants will be known as “words”. They are not understood as carriers or agents of the texts they bear, but as its embodiments. As a result, injuries to the printed texts, such as dermabrasion, laser surgery, tattoo cover work or the loss of body parts, will not be considered to alter the work. Only the death of words effaces them from the text. As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died. The author will make every effort to attend the funerals of her words.”