Sumi-nagashi is a form of Japanese ink marbling, and something that I had played around with in graduate school as a result of a surface design for textiles class. I knew I wanted one of these pattens for the background on my arm, but how to decide? I marbled tiny swatches of paper and tried lots of different combinations of ink and dispersant. After I had several dozen examples that I liked, I sifted them more carefully. One immediatley struck me somehow, and that was the one I took to Greg and said "Can you make it like this?" He did, and the subtlty of the lines up close is mind-blowing.

You can see the background of this arm in progress HERE.

These pictures of my arm were taken in 2001.