So I had this weird idea this morning after seeing a friend’s FaceBook profile pic. It looked like she’d taped over her mouth and written something on the tape. And I thought “what a cool statement about the power of words, that maybe this is one word that she can’t bring herself to say, so she wrote it and took a picture of it to prove that she owns the word, and the word doesn’t own her. Or maybe it’s her favorite word, or an overused word, or something neat like that.”

For the record, this person is an artist, so it wouldn’t be too out of line for these thought to occur to her and for her to have done that very thing. But she didn’t. She had drawn a fake moustache on a piece of paper and taped it over her mouth. Which is also funny, but not at all the same idea. And I might need new glasses.

But regardless, I thought it would be cool to get all types of people to send me pictures of themselves wearing words. Their favorite words, their least favorite words, words that make them cry, words that make them laugh. Then I’ll put all the pics into some kind of montage and make something cool out of it. Because words are important. And I think it will be an interesting experiment to see what words people think are important and what words people are interested in putting on themselves somehow.

So here are the rules – I want no more than three pictures from people. You can send me one, two or three. But there can be only one word per pic. I don’t care how you transmit the word – it can be on a T-shirt, a tattoo, a piece of paper stuck to your forehead, written on your tits in Sharpie, sprinkled on your junk and written in glitter. I don’t care. But make it be an important word to YOU. I don’t give a shit if “spaniel” means a dog to everyone else, but if it’s what your mom whispered to you when a thunderstorm was coming and it made you feel better, then “spaniel” is important to you. I’d love it if there was a brief explanation of the word and its significance, but that’s optional. I don’t care if we see your face. I will not edit photos, so don’t put anything in the pic that you don’t want on the interwebs.

Think of it as performance art. Your chance to be part of a Karen Finley show without the dry cleaning bill. Email all the photos to john AT johnhartness.com. And pass it along. I think it would be cool if I got pictures from strangers telling me why “mouse” is their least favorite word in the world.

Update – Here’s the first one, and it’s a great blend of image and word. It has begun, keep it going!

If you enjoy this post, or just want to make sure you don\'t miss a new release, please take a second to support me on Patreon!