I'll defend you now, eat nails later

NEW YORK - A tattoo-covered Coney Island side show performer who specializes in eating nails says he's found a new calling: becoming a lawyer. "I know it sounds weird, but I want to be a freak lawyer," the man known for 15 years as "Eak the Geek" told the newspaper am New York in an article published Tuesday.

"I hope to have a little office in New York and work with the alternative people, all the so-called riffraff, to give them legal representation that is not judgmental."
"Coney Island was very good to me, but it was just time to go," Eak, 45, whose given name is Eduardo Arrocha, told the paper by phone from Lansing, Mich. "Eak the Geek is the performance, but I'm also a person."
The Mexico City native said he's following in the footsteps of his father and brother, both lawyers.
Arrocha said he earned a bachelors degree in political science in May from Marymount College in Manhattan, and was starting classes on Tuesday at Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
"The people here are very curious about me," he said. "I'm the new zoo animal here."
Arrocha, a burly six feet tall with tattoos from his shaved head to his toes, acknowledges that his new career will bring a fashion challenge:
"I've never had to tie a tie before."