All one really has to do to find something about their body they didn't know before is take a picture of their back. Bumps, marks, discolorations - most people just don't look at their backs often enough to know anything about them. But then, who really wants to know? And who really wants to look at pictures of odd skin markings?

My inspiration for this project came from karate. When I first started going to my dojo, I would find myself barely capable of movement for days after each workout. I would bore all those around me with my remarks about discovering muscles I never knew I had, or that no-one should have to find out they had. Not too long ago I found a muscle on my leg that is involved in going down stairs but not up, because for a few days I was barely able to take a step down but could walk up four flights without a twinge.

In that line of thought, I decided that "studying" should be an entirely non-visual experience. After all, I don't have a microscope. Once visual examination is out, though, the options are limited. Taste seems disturbing, and entirely dependent on how recently I got out of the shower or left the dojo. Smell suffers similarly. The environment doesn't allow for listening to my body, beyond the already-known intestinal grumblings. This leave touch and kinesthetics.

The half hour was spent mostly still, occasionally stretching, eyes closed, attempting to find something discernible but not yet known. I recently discovered that a female family member has the ability to wiggle her ears, but assorted attempts to twitch new muscles groups into action failed miserably. I tried counting my vertebrae - not being a student of anatomy, I have no idea how many there are supposed to be - and only succeeded in learning that I'm not as flexible as I would like to be. Prodding around my mouth with the tongue found a few complaints for the dentist who inserted my most recent fillings, but fake enamel isn't quite "the body".

Around the time I was deciding either I knew way too much about my body or was simply too unobservant to notice anything new, I found one tidbit that fascinated the child inside: veins are three dimensional. I'm used to occasional flashes of blue on my wrists and hands, but fingering my wrists with my eyes closed found some unexpected bumps, which could be traced up the back of my hands. Not the tendons - I opened my eyes to check, and have spent far too much time examining that network of blue lines, investigating which position makes them most prominent (wrist bent down, hand relaxed) and which is most prominent even when I'm properly hydrated (left hand, running from base of the thumb up to the indentation between first and second knuckles).

The real question now is, can I convince myself not to spend hours upon end trying to trace veins across my entire body? The feet and ankles, at least, should be similarly prominent...