Out of curiosity I decided to check if there was a genuine Ink5oul on Instagram, and there is!
Everything about the bio, how it's newly created, no following, and all that definitely confirms this is part of the arg, which is really cool.
It's especially interesting as there was apparently a casting call for a tattoo artist character, so Ink5oul may return. The "If you're Spoke, you know where to reach me" really reinforces that there's more to her story we've yet to hear, and perhaps some other forces of fear? Spoke sounds like a reference towards something or someone will be introduced to eventually. Very exciting there!
Anyway! The mention of alchemy symbols in the episode and whatnot immediately drew my interest in the symbol at the end of the bio. I looked it up and it is in fact an alchemy symbol.
The description of salt in alchemy has exact parallels towards the story's themes of body horror and seeking "perfection". The idea of chemically dissolving down something to purify it specifically brought to mind the "if I wanted to clear the canvas, I would have used turpentine" line.
Overall, this story had The Flesh written all over it, and Ink5oul is certainly an avatar of it.
Curious to see how more arg content will play out with the series as it continues. The use of alchemy symbols is definitely interesting, especially since the previous episode mentions graffitied symbols in the Archive ruins. I feel like alchemy will have a fair amount of bearing on the series going forwards, which I'm very excited for!
I don't know how I didn't see this tweet until now but I've been yelling FUCK YOU JANICE RAYMOND FUCK YOU FUCK YOU inside my head for the last 10 minutes and trying not to hyperventilate
You wrote one of the most hateful and transphobic books ever written, the fucking Bible of TERFdom, because a trans woman fucking dumped you?