Oh how I wish I’d discovered this sooner. A short story consisting of 2095 words that will never be published and yet will be read by 2095 people.
How?
Because each and every word will be tattooed on an individual and only those who are inked will receive a copy of the work in its entirety.
Image courtesy of one of our Facebook followers.
Once each applicant has signed the inevitable legal waivers and fulfilled the strict criteria, they are then assigned a word (plus any punctuation marks) which they then have tattooed upon a body-part in black ink and in classic book font. A print is then sent to the author and the tattooed person is classified as a Word.
Taken from her website:
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.
How lovely is that, to know that your life and your death impacts on the life of a story.
Sadly, there are very few words remaining and very many applicants. I will still apply and if successful obviously will let you see the resultant ‘word’ I am assigned but I doubt if I will be fortunate enough to become one of the few words left to publish.
I don’t mind admitting I am inordinately envious of those who will forever carry around with them a First and Only Edition piece of literature.
Shelley Jackson is a writer and artist known for her cross-genre experiments, including her groundbreaking work of hyperfiction, Patchwork Girl (1995).
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