Burton Olivier asked Neil Gaiman to write a comic to be tattooed on his back. Gaiman agreed if he could promote the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in the process. And he got David Mack, Olivier’s choice, to draw it.

A photo of Olivier’s tattoo is available at Robot 6.

And the CBDLF is offering a limited number of color prints of the illuminated poem.

The text of Gaiman’s poem reads:

I will write in words of fire. I will write them on your skin. I will write about desire. Write beginnings, write of sin. You’re the book I love the best, your skin only holds my truth, you will be a palimpsest lines of age rewriting youth. You will not burn upon the pyre. Or be buried on the shelf. You’re my letter to desire: And you’ll never read yourself. I will trace each word and comma As the final dusk descends, You’re my tale of dreams and drama, Let us find out how it ends.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]