Illma Gore is a self-proclaimed street artist who wants your name on her body. For the introductory price of $10 she’ll permanently tattoo a name or one to two words on her skin. After briefly being taken down without explanation, her crowdfunding campaign was reinstated last week and it has passed its $6,000 goal. A message on the GoFundMe page says there’s still room for 1,500(!) names, though.
Higher dollar amounts yield more word options, documentation, or the ability to add a picture to Gore’s living canvas. She says the only thing that’s completely off-limits is hate speech. While most entries have been for names or pairs of names the expected juvenile phrases like “snooty pizza” or “tobacco rat” have also rolled in. She spoke to the Guardian about her motivations:
There is something absurd and beautiful about having absolute strangers’ names draped over my pale goth skin, even if half of them are ‘Penis Butt’. Why, you might ask? Simply because I can. I am my own ultimate canvas.
It’s one original piece that cannot be sold or recreated. People can say whatever they like; I will not control their input. That would demean the purpose of it.
She also expressed an interest in joining the line of artists who’ve used their body as a canvas like Marina Abramovic and Yoko Ono. The Guardian points out that it’s also reminiscent of Wafaa Billal:
In 2010, Billal had a map of Iraq tattooed on his back with dots marking the US and Iraqi casualties from the war. But the Iraqi deaths were marked in invisible ink, only visible under black light. The work, called ‘… and Counting’ was a response to the murder of Billal’s brother by a missile in their hometown of Kufa, Iraq in 2004 – one of many Iraqi casualties that remained invisible to the American public.
Get your pledge in now — there’s limited space and there won’t be any way of squeezing you in when it’s gone.
