He wasn't sure when the desire to change his body had started. Maybe it was when the twins were born, and he knew he had to stand out from the stair step, nearly identical brothers that followed him around like puppies. Small, obnoxious, heavy breathing puppies. But the first thing he'd ever done without parental permission was to pierce his ear. Maybe it was because he'd made Head Boy, even looking like a London rocker that could use a bath and "just a bit of a trim, Bill" that was his mother's never ending refrain.

But regardless, it had led him to take a job that led him all over the world, one that afforded him the long leash he needed in regards to appearance to try out every new kind of body mod he found, from facial tattooing in New Zealand among the Maori (that had been an experience, and one he greatly regretted having faded from his face, though the permanent one just under his hairline remained) to branding and cutting the skin in different patterns and, of course, piercings. Most of his mods were hidden under clothing, but the small stud in his nose could be seen and commented on, and Molly never missed a chance to do so, though it was never cruel, just curious laced with misunderstanding about his motivation for putting his body through such things.

The year he'd spent in Africa saw his lower lip and labret pierced, and that had been a hell of a thing to get around, as he'd not had practice before keeping hoop and ball separate, and a couple of nights had been extraordinarily memorable as sympathetic tribal members had aided him in extrication. Finally it was agreed that the British wizard should have one, but not the other. He'd kept the labret in the end, preferring to run his tongue down the inside of his bottom lip instead of flicking out over the hoop.

The last one he'd had done before the wedding had been in New Guinea, he was removing curses from a set of long-forgotten texts regarding coming of age rituals, and as a reward (or maybe a punishment, he remembered with a grimace) the Sepik River tribe he'd been living with asked him to participate in the ritual with several of their young boys.

The scarification on his calf had come from the tribal elders cutting into his skin with razor blades to create an alligator skin pattern. They believed that the creature would come and devour any part of the boy left in them, and leave only the men, and they could take their rightful place in the tribe afterwards.

Bill had thought he would die from the pain but he hadn't, and the tribe had honored him greatly. He had family all over the world now, and not one of them looked like him.

END