Onie could appear rather shocking the first time you met her. She wore clothing she made herself out of scraps of cloth -- often with a tail sewn on the back -- and had hair in an assortment of incongruous styles, dyed ten different fluorescent shades with springs, cords and such attached to it. She also had assorted chicken bones, wood blocks, etc. stuck through piercings in her ears and nose. She survived on SSI by convincing the government that she was insane, which was perhaps not that far from the truth, at least according to the conventional definition of sanity. Speaking to her, however, she didn't seem insane at all, and in fact had an air of spiritual calmness and certainty that made her seem closer to God than anyone else.