Tom Leppard's Descriptive Essay: The Leopard Man

He rejects society and all it has to offer in favor of a simple and solitary existence. He calls himself Tom Leppard. But he is more widely known as “Leopard Man,” owing to the fact that he is tattooed from head to toe with leopard spots. He is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s most tattooed man. He is, according to society, a freak.
2 Normally, I find myself unimpressed with individuals who radically change their appearance through extreme tattooing, piercings, hair mutilations, etc. Such people are desperate for society’s attention. Having failed to attract it in a positive form, they go for shock value. They may call themselves “non-conformists,” but most anti- social freaks, in their obsession with displaying

He lives in solitude. Tom Leppard, now in his 60s, spends most of his days in a small cabin in the Scottish wilderness. He ventures into civilization only when he needs food and supplies (he wears clothes to cover up his colorful body).
4 Society looks down upon freakish and extraordinary individuals alike and views them with suspicion. Ordinary people fear what they don’t understand. They especially fear loners, those mysterious creatures who pursue their own values without seeking others’ permission or permitting others to hamper them.
5 Pop psychologists reassure the masses that abnormal people suffer from psychological disorders. Indeed, plenty of weird people do have serious mental problems. But so do plenty of “normal” people. Who are the con-artists, the spousebeaters, the child-molesters of the world? They are, overwhelmingly, the priests, the lawyers, the socially upstanding next-door neighbors of the world. Why do so many millions of “normal” people suffer from alcoholism, eating disorders, panic attacks, depression, and other debilitating conditions? Could it be that the desire to “fit in” has lead to these self-inflicted diseases?
6 Conformity can be seen as the world’s most common but dangerous