Through bunshin, the act of tattooing, the book makes visible two individuals, body and spirit. People who wanted a tattoo out of prayer, oath or wish were recruited over the internet, and the words they chose were carved into their bodies as single calligraphic characters; the pictures show the bodies and the process. Each tells briefly why they arrived at that character and what it means to carve it into the body, and the trajectory of a life, its absurdity and the will to go beyond it come to the surface. The calligrapher and photographer Shinsuke Kiryu considers the relation between calligraphy and art and creates a work that crosses their border. In Japan tattoos have had a negative context as punishment and a positive one of wish and sanctification, and by handling the gap between the awareness of the person who acts and the person who looks, the work presents how we see and perceive.