SCP-021: Skin Wyrm

SCP-021: Skin Wyrm Object Class: Safe SCP-021 is a living, two-dimensional parasite that looks like an elaborate tattoo of a serpentine dragon. It covers roughly 0.8 square meters of its host's skin and moves freely across that surface, usually staying around the torso. Its movements cause constant, severe pain. The file compares the sensation to having a large area tattooed and having those tattoos removed at the same time. The organism behaves like an animal, mainly moving and feeding. Researchers have not found evidence of more advanced intelligence, although they have no reliable way to measure the intelligence of a two-dimensional life-form. SCP-021 feeds on pigment. It prefers tattoo ink and actively seeks out other tattoos on its host, consuming them before turning to the skin's natural melanin. As melanin disappears, the host develops patches resembling vitiligo. Feeding itself does not add pain beyond the pain of movement. The ink simply disappears. It can clear more than 0.6 square meters of skin in an hour. Foundation personnel can feed it by quickly tattooing pictures of fruit or small animals onto the host. Despite consuming pigment, SCP-021 remains the same size, and no waste products have been observed. The parasite can move between people through physical contact, visibly swimming from one person's skin onto another. Different forms of contact have different success rates. Sexual intercourse has produced a 93 percent transmission rate, but the pain makes it impractical. Contact between open wounds is generally preferred. Attempts to transfer it between species suggest that this is either impossible or extremely rare. A host's death does not kill SCP-021. It continues consuming pigment on the body, and transferring it from a deceased host remains possible, though more difficult. Living hosts receive some measurable benefits. SCP-021 changes the release and reuptake of epinephrine and reduces lactic acid buildup. During stressful situations, hosts show increased strength, confidence, and pain tolerance, with less subsequent weakness and fatigue. It also appears to benefit the immune system. Those effects do not remove the constant pain. Several hosts have died by suicide, while rare cases have involved fatal skin infections. Hosts also tend to show increased aggression, although researchers have not established whether the parasite directly causes this or whether it is a response to the pain. Containment consists of keeping the host in a secure cell. Only D-Class personnel may host SCP-021, and the file exempts them from its stated monthly termination policy for as long as they survive with it. Its origins and age remain unknown. The Foundation considers it one of its longest-held anomalies and currently studies it primarily to understand life in two dimensions. https://t.co/IsOuKNfgqQ