Sensitive Skin Magazine Archive

Sensitive Skin magazine was a short-lived publication created and edited by Buddy Kold and Norman Douglas in 1991. The first four issues were printed under the title "Peau Sensible" (French for "sensitive skin"), which had been translated to the English for subsequent issues. John Farris, Patricia Winter, and Darius James joined the editorial fold in 1992, while Mr. E. Oso took over editorial duties for the final issue in 1994. Kold remained the publisher throughout these years.

The magazine published short fiction, poetry, screenwriting, reviews, essays, drawings, and photographs by established and emerging writers and artists, mostly from New York. Sensitive Skin also frequently partnered with The Living Theatre to host release parties/ benefits where many of the published authors would read from their work and/or perform. St. Mark's Poetry Project and the Fez also hosted readings in conjunction with the magazine.

During its brief existence, Sensitive Skin published seminal downtown New York writers including John Giorno, Eileen Myles, David Rattray, Chris Kraus, David Ulin, Sparrow, Mike Topp, Ron Kolm, Richard Hell, Bob Holman, Wanda Phipps, Taylor Mead, among many others. Many of its published writers are part of the transgressive New York school, but a high degree of humour and wit also pervaded each issue. From haughty, pseudo-manifestoes to faux interviews, Sensitive Skin was careful not to take itself too seriously. Referring to the tongue-in-cheek subtitle of issue #2--"The magazine of art and literature that makes reading as fun and easy as watching TV!"--the editors, displaying this balance struck between the disturbing and the droll, write: "our magazine is not necessarily fun, or easy, to read. But for those who still search for interesting literature, and for the profound, the dark and the disturbing, Sensitive Skin is the place to look." (Box 1, Folder 5)