Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Years ago, while working at The Book Corner, one of the last independent book stores here in Bloomington, I stumbled upon a book titled, The Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelley Jackson. Part of this collection of short stories (with titles like “Heart”, “Foetus” and “Nerve”) is a short story that’s still in progress called “Skin”.

“Skin” isn’t in the book. Rather, it’s a “mortal work of art: a story tattooed on readers’ bodies, one word at a time.” Only the participants of the story will receive a complete copy of the whole story, and I want to be one of those participants.

It’s been almost two years since I e-mailed Shelley about my desire and willingness to be part of the project and, with only 315 words left to distribute, my chances don’t look too good.

I’ve long been fascinated with words – not just words that roll off the tongue well, or have cool meanings – but how words look. The combination of the font, the letters in the word, coupled with the meaning of the word, has an affect on me that I can’t, well, put into words.

When I was a kid, maybe nine- or ten-years-old, I used to beg my sister to write words on me with those colored markers that smelled like fruit. It’s funny, though, she had terrible writing, and I was always disappointed with the outcome. Then, I discovered tattooing and Peter Greenaway’s film, The Pillow Book. Check out the review on Rottentomatoes.com. Together, it was a realization of what I tried to get my sister to do as a child – indelible words on my skin.

Like Justin, though he has me beat by the sheer amount of ink on him, I love my tattoos. And I love the words I have tattooed on me – but I’m not part of a collective story. Not collectively written, but a written upon collective.

And it makes me wonder about the convergence of flesh and words and meaning, and if the same word tattooed on two different people means the same thing. Or if the same word in two different books (or even the same book) means the same thing. And if they don’t, then how can we come to a consensus over any written text, whether on paper or skin?

I guess that’s why there are so many books out there – we haven’t come up with all the ways stories can be told – or written.