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It goes without saying that these are tough economic times. The recession has hit Americans hard, and with health care becoming the hotly debated issue of the moment, a story like this makes it all the more clear that, wherever your political opinions lie, everyone can likely agree that progress is necessary.

Writes eBay user andrew_wills_88:


The birth of my daughter Taleah [cost] around $18,000...I need to raise money to pay for hospital bills. My wife has free insurance covered by her employers, but my daughter wasn't covered.

The cost of coverage for my daughter on my wife's insurance was too high. Also, we were declined by Oregon's health plan, due to us making 20 dollars more each month then allowed by our states assistance program. The tests and other things necessary for Taleah after birth...amounted to around $5,000. Those costs were up to us to pay.

Putting my daughter on insurance through my wife's place of business would be $600 a month. We cannot afford that. I am on unemployment...This is the first time in my life [I've ever been unemployed]. My wife is a legal assistant. She went to school for two years on her own means. I am 21 years old and my wife is 24 years old. Together each year we make around $25,000.


In a moment of desperation, new daddy andrew_wills_88 has taken to eBay, offering to be tattooed (albeit the designs being "a reasonable sentence, word or symbol) under his left arm, measuring at two inches tall, three inches long. Sacrificing his skin for someone's artistic vision (or, y'know, a Looney Tunes fan) and the protection of his infant daughter, one young man vividly demonstrates the sad fact that desperate times call for desperate measures.

For "ordinary" people like andrew_wills_88 and his wife, parenthood has proven equally problematic as it is miraculous, all undoubtedly because of lack of sufficient governmental support. And while we don't know the couple personally, we can only hope for their sake that somebody, somewhere, is eager enough to shell out a few G's to get the Tazmanian Devil or something scribbled directly beneath some stranger's armpit, all in the name of little Taleah.