Ars Moriendi

This act of self-mutilation has become habitual. I perform it every morning after my nightly exploits, at the hour when other men are shaving, defecating and scrubbing their skins to remove all the material their bodies have produced under the cover of darkness. As for me, I am clean: formaldehyde preserves my entrails, and lice, more careful and discerning than human beings, can rarely be persuaded to enter my bed.

K.J. Bishop, Maldoror Abroad