Born just west of the Bayou in Lafourche Parish in south Louisiana, Amos Jonah Garrison suffered abuse and neglect throughout his childhood. By the time he was eighteen, he had endured harsh beatings from his stepfather and emotional neglect from his mother, herself a victim of her husband's anger. A.J. can no longer tolerate the abuse he, his siblings, and his mother suffered, and he brutally kills his stepfather. On this notable day in his life, he also hears, for the first time, the voice of Cutter, a controlling alter-personality speaking to him, directing and guiding him in future killings and the collection of prized Tattoo Trophies. Over the next three decades, A.J. moves from Army Base to Base, and then numerous communities where he works as a butcher. A.J. is now a serial killer, and Cutter continues to use and manipulate him to flay tattoo trophies from his victims, eventually killing over fifty individuals, all mutilated and their tattoos flayed. No bodies are found, and there is no trail of evidence unless Cutter, the now tenacious second personality of A.J., wants the bodies to be found.