The 437th Day

This started off as a random ad lib in one of my new cahier notebooks [link] when I was thinking about Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House (the Stuart Gordon adaptation), the final level from the Genesis game Flashback: the Quest for Identity (wherein Conrad, the lead, finds a scientist's journal that lists its entries by days instead of dates), and the opening narration to the movie GUNHED (detailing the early assaults on Island 8JO)... I might also have been thinking about the early stages of the PS2 game Fatal Frame (where Miku gradually uncovers clues about a ritual that involves secluding a sacrificial offering for six-hundred-and-sixty-six days), but that's probably digging a little too deep into the random juxtapositions and interconnecting streams of consciousness that run through my head when I look at blank pieces of paper.
Assigning the glyphs and ciphers to the segments of the fingers is from Master Alfred Huang's Numerology of the I Ching, though there it's 8 distinct symbols (the gua) with the middle segment left empty. Here, I was going for something that would be interpreted as being linear than circular, working side-to-side rather than radiating from the center.

The ink around the edges is another instance of the Goddess Serendipity ringing her bell. I knew I wanted to do something to the paper, but I couldn't just apply a texture without muddying up the line-work, and I certainly didn't feel like burning or tearing the edges (this watercolor paper doesn't tear well and is rather slow to burn). Putting that part of the process on the back burner, I reached for my red pen, instead pulling out the 0.59 fountain pen I found when I was out buying red foam-core for the Etch-a-Sketch failure. Like an idiot, I'd forgotten that fountain pens are supposed to be stored nib-up, so it was ebbing black ink everywhere, namely all over my fingers.
I heard the aforementioned bell, and remembered that I'd wanted to experiment with aging paper through means other than burning. Of course, I was planning on using charcoal or ash, but this seemed like it would make for a good "proof of concept" model. So, I rubbed my fingers all over the edges, occasionally going back to the pen to get more ink. Okay, it doesn't look "aged" but it's better than leaving it otherwise-untouched.