[W]e were both denied love, and this deficiency would be scorched into our future lives like an ill-considered tattoo, inscribed on the buttocks after a drunken night out, leading each of us inevitably toward isolation and disaster.
-- Cyril Avery, Narrator (Chapter 2)

Importance: During the protagonist, Cyril Avery's, childhood and early adulthood, his most intimate relationship is with his best friend, Julian Woodbead. This quote shows how the two men are similar. Because they are both denied love in their childhoods, they struggle throughout their adult lives to learn how to give and receive it. Cyril foreshadows how this struggle will blight both their lives and ruin their friendship. The simile he uses, that lack of love is like an ill-considered tattoo scorched onto the buttocks, hints the downfall awaiting each man is scandalous and sexual. Cyril's observation, made in hindsight, helps the reader empathize with cruel decisions Cyril and Julian make later in the...