A teenage Otis pulled the collar up on the rain jacket that he had stolen. In a feeble attempt to stop the freezing rain running down the huge neckhole of the oversized raincoat. He wondered why if he'd gone through the effort to steal a coat why hadn't he picked one his size. He was homeless, cold and hungry but atleast he wasn't at the mercy of his sadistic parents. He may be a sorry sight now but atleast he wasn't being beaten and raped by his parents on a daily basis. Otis's stomach was cramping with terrible hunger pains, he knew he needed to eat soon, but the only problem was he was short of money to get food. He'd stolen before but after a recent beating from a shop owner he didn't relish the idea of having to risk being beaten to a pulp again if he didn't have to.
As he walked through a town that he had wondered into, he noticed an advertising board outside a tattoo studio.
"Volunteers needed for practising tattooist, payment of fifty dollars given to anyone willing to donate their skin" The teenage Otis thought hard about it, he was desperate for the money and being of very low self esteem he thought a tattoo couldn't possibly make him look any worse. He decided to go for it, it was his body now, not his parents he could do whatever he liked to it. Plus afterwards he could finally get some food.
The tattooist was only in his early twenties, approximately five years older than Otis. The tattooist took Otis's word for it that he was of legal age for a tattoo even though it was obvious to him that he was at least two years too young. The tattooist knew he would get a huge telling off if the owner ever found out as he was a man of strict rules and regulations, but the practising tattooist was desperate for someone to practice on. Eager to improve his skills.
Otis chose a skull with wings, he thought it seemed symbolic to him. The skull representing the death of his parents and the wings of freedom he had developed from their death. Having the tattoo itself was a breeze, the pain was nothing to what he had suffered at the hands of his parents. Afterwards he walked out the tattoo studio with a smile on his face clutching his small bunch of notes, it would feed him for at least a few weeks.
Otis found a comfortable, sheltered place in the street to spend the night. He munched happily on the days food that he had brought, finally relieved that his belly would stop hurting. His tattoo stung but it only reminded him of his freedom but from his parents and freedom to make his own decisions. Otis spent a lot of his time thinking about his life, wondering if his life was going to be like this forever or whether one day he would actually be happy but at that moment he was just happy to be fed.
Lying in bed Lily listened intensely to Otis's story. Her man had gone through so much pain, suffering and hardship in his life, from when he was born his suffering had began and once it had began it hadn't relented even when he had escaped them. It just made her love him more and feel more proud of him, the amount of things he had gone through and survived.
"Even now I hate that man" Otis growled "Well I say man, barely a man, he was just starting out as a tattooist, he was only a few years older than me!"
"Why do you hate him? He paid you didn't he?" Lily asked frowning, confused by his bizarre statement. Otis was a man of great intelligence but sometimes his emotions clouded his whole common sense.
"He was taking advantage of people!" Otis snapped "Taking advantage of people like me, homeless and desperate people, just so he could improve his skills" Otis said angrily. She wasn't sure if he was really angry of him taking advantage of people in need or whether he was just jealous of how well the tattooist was probably doing in the world now.
"But you volunteered" Lily said trying not to scoff at him "He paid you for what you agreed to"
"I was young then!" Otis snapped "What if it went wrong and someone was stuck with something hideous for the rest of their life, all because they were desperate for money for food"
"That was the risk you was willing to take for volunteering" Lily snapped back.
"Look Lily I don't want to argue with you, can we just drop it!" He grumbled, taking his arm from around her and turning on his side with his back towards her to go to sleep. Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing, it was obvious that as a young man Otis had no idea of what he was letting himself in for when he had volunteered. It wasn't surprising since Otis's abusive parents never let him outside and made a stranger to the world, clueless of everything that was out there. But what she couldn't believe that at his age he was still bitter about the situation and jealous about a man he doesn't even know and hasn't even seen since he was a teenager.