I am trying to remember a science fiction story involving memory loss, possibly in a time loop, or possibly due to personalities sharing a body, or possibly something else. For some reason, people are tattooing important info on their arms (no, it's not MEMENTO). And I keep thinking it's an R. A. Lafferty story. The problem is that I could be wrong on so many of these details.

(This was triggered by my seeing LITTLE FISH, an SF movie about a memory loss virus, which I recommend.)

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Evelyn C. Leeper

On Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 15:00:17 UTC, eleeper@optonline.net wrote:
> I am trying to remember a science fiction story involving memory loss, possibly in a time loop, or possibly due to personalities sharing a body, or possibly something else. For some reason, people are tattooing important info on their arms (no, it's not MEMENTO). And I keep thinking it's an R. A. Lafferty story. The problem is that I could be wrong on so many of these details.
>
> (This was triggered by my seeing LITTLE FISH, an SF movie about a memory loss virus, which I recommend.)

"The Silence" <https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Silent>
in _Doctor Who_ are genetically engineered aliens:
amongst their weird abilities are that you don't remember
seeing them , until you see them again. Characters deal
with this by keeping a tally on their skin, amongst other
methods.

They appear in episodes including "The Wedding of
River Song", in which interference with a "fixed point
in time" leads to time being "stuck" with lots of
different times being present simultaneously:
Doctor Who teams up with Holy Roman Emperor
Winston Churchill (again) and they acquire a lot of
arm marks...