Chuck Palahniuk's fans aren't just loyal, they border on fanatic. People have asked the "Fight Club" author to sign their arms or legs, then gotten tattoos over his signature to make his mark permanent. One man even had the author's signature carved into his leg with an X-Acto knife. Mr. Palahniuk, who found the extreme show of devotion disturbing, began taking plastic body parts to his readings.

"I started to throw out severed arms and legs as a way of giving people a surrogate arm or leg I could sign for them," he says.

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