A surface of a human skin determines a border between outer and inner sphere. Tightness of this division, however, is a subject to permanent perturbation. It makes human skin a fascinating mean of communication. The visual arts (ex. body art) and literature derive from that potential. In that context, human skin appears as a place where Julia Kristeva’s distinction between « symbolic » and « semiotic » diffuses. A body becomes a corps parlant (speaking body). This process of body writing is analyzed by a collation of Lorette Nobécourt’s book La Démangeaison (Itching) and some body art’s enterprises.

A surface of a human skin determines a border between outer and inner sphere. Tightness of this division, however, is a subject to permanent perturbation. It makes human skin a fascinating mean of communication. The visual arts (ex. body art) and literature derive from that potential. In that context, human skin appears as a place where Julia Kristeva’s distinction between « symbolic » and « semiotic » diffuses. A body becomes a corps parlant (speaking body). This process of body writing is analyzed by a collation of Lorette Nobécourt’s book La Démangeaison (Itching) and some body art’s enterprises.