John Fare

The narrative first appeared in print as a 1968 piece cited as 'The Hand' by N. B. Shein in the Insect Trust Gazette; a widely cited, more detailed and embellished retelling followed in 1972 by Tim Craig (Studio International), which added biographical and performance specifics. Subsequent circulation through fanzines, gallery texts, music collaborations (eg. Coil/Nocturnal Emissions references) and exhibition projects treated 'the estate of John Fare' as a curatorial or fictional device. Institutional responses (notably Avrom Isaacs/Isaacs Gallery) deny Fare's historicity; the corpus treats him as a mythic persona used to explore questions about bodily sacrifice and authenticity rather than a verified historical individual.

Accounts that form part of the legend provide fleshed‑out biographical and theatrical details (e.g., birth in 1936 in Toronto, study in London and Copenhagen) and theatrical trappings (a birth certificate displayed under glass at gallery entrances). One emulative performance report describes an eccentric stage appearance—zippered trousers and a brain diagram tattoo on a shaved scalp—but sources mark such costume details as derived from later emulations or embellishments rather than independently corroborated factual description of a historical person.

Within the circulated narratives Fare's defining 'ability' is performing extreme self‑mutilatory works using mechanical or 'robotic' surgical apparatus: progressive staged amputations (lists of specific removals appear in the embellished accounts), preservation of removed parts in alcohol, and an alleged onstage beheading in one version. These actions are elements of the legend and of emulative performances that invoke the Fare story; institutional and archival sources deny their factual occurrence, and the tale functions primarily as a conceptual touchstone in debates around body art and martyrdom.