owie owie owie

September 1, 2005 7:47 PM

On Friday, September 2nd, artist Mary Coble will subject herself to a marathon tattoo session that could make a career Marine wince. Beginning at 6 p.m. and likely continuing until dawn the next day, a tattoo artist will etch 400 names of victims of the nation's gay, bisexual and transgender hate crimes into the artist's back, legs and arms. And we're all invited to watch. More (WashPo [reg.rqd])
posted by crunchland (18 comments total)

More more.
posted by crunchland at 7:50 PM on September 1, 2005

Ugh. I think I will pass. (this is no dis to you crunchland, but the thought of watching fails to excite me.)
posted by caddis at 8:03 PM on September 1, 2005

Your link to the webcast didn't work for me. A step back did and it has a javascript link to Note to Self Performance | Live Webcast.
posted by ?! at 8:03 PM on September 1, 2005

Yikes!
posted by longsleeves at 8:06 PM on September 1, 2005

yeah. I suspect the webcast link might not be active until tomorrow night.
posted by crunchland at 8:36 PM on September 1, 2005

Franz Kafka unavailable for comment.
posted by BoringPostcards at 8:56 PM on September 1, 2005

She's a Vietnam Memorial. People can wail and point and place flowers at her feet. Look up names on the registry: "Left elbow".
posted by stbalbach at 9:06 PM on September 1, 2005

She is doing this without ink. Why? I've never noticed any kind of scarring or skin marking (besides the ink, duh) as the result of a tattoo.

Presumably upon getting the tattoo there will be swelling and blood, a kind of filigree, in the pattern of a name, but wouldn't that fade after just a few days of healing?

Has anyone gotten or observed an inkless tattoo?
posted by oddman at 9:33 PM on September 1, 2005

The article states it will fade within a few weeks. It's a nice thought, an attention-getter for hate crimes, but she doesn't want to actually be a living memorial to these people.

It's a mix of self-indulgent attention whoring, and raising awareness of a good cause.
posted by Saydur at 9:40 PM on September 1, 2005

The political reasons for her public shedding of blood differ, but are her theatrics any more effective than this: Shias stage anti-US protest?
posted by cenoxo at 9:46 PM on September 1, 2005

Is she the 401st victim?
posted by buzzman at 9:50 PM on September 1, 2005

a turtle on her right shoulder.

Damn. I never knew I was a trendsetter. Where do I sue for plagiarism?
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:08 PM on September 1, 2005

Has anyone gotten or observed an inkless tattoo?

penn jillette got a no-ink tattoo
posted by hulette at 12:57 AM on September 2, 2005

oddman : "Has anyone gotten or observed an inkless tattoo?"

I don't know if anyone here has, but Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller did, and describes it in one of their magic books. It indeed leaves no trace, but apparently it's more painful because the ink normally acts as a lubricant.
posted by Bugbread at 1:53 AM on September 2, 2005

D'oh!! I thought I'd refreshed!

Posting something already commented is embarrasing. Posting something already commented by the person immediately above you is more embarassing. But posting something the person immediately above you almost an hour earlier is mortifying. And with a link, no less...
posted by Bugbread at 1:55 AM on September 2, 2005

This is good stunt PR, but bad art. There's little connection between the act and the message.
posted by klangklangston at 5:34 AM on September 2, 2005

This was in thursdays Washington Express.
posted by Suparnova at 5:44 AM on September 2, 2005

Well, if any of you have tried to access the video, and ran into technical difficulties, it's because the webpage is miscoded. Here's a link to it.
posted by crunchland at 3:45 PM on September 2, 2005